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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Meraki vMX

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/ACisco's Meraki Virtual MX (vMX) is a virtual instance of a Meraki security & SD-WAN appliance, dedicated specifically to providing the simple configuration benefits of site-to-site Auto VPN for customers running or migrating IT services to an Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).N/A

    FortiGate

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AFortiNet FortiGate is a firewall option with high integrability. It offers a variety of deployment options and next-gen firewall capabilities, including integration with IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Meraki vMXFortiGate
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Meraki vMXFortiGate
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsFortiGate pricing starts at $250 for home office use, up to $300,000 for large enterprise appliances. Must contact sales team for pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Meraki vMXFortiGate
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Fortinet
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    48 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    10 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    47 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    9 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    48 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    43 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    10 Answers
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    46 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Meraki vMXFortiGate
    Virtual Private Network
    Comparison of Virtual Private Network features of Cisco Meraki vMX and Fortinet FortiGate
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki vMX
    8.7
    7 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Fortinet FortiGate
    -
    Ratings
    AES 256-bit Encryption9.77 Ratings00 Ratings
    Kill Switch10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Platform Support8.35 Ratings00 Ratings
    Split Tunneling7.55 Ratings00 Ratings
    IP Address Masking8.34 Ratings00 Ratings
    No-Logs Policy6.62 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Server Locations9.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Simultaneous Connections9.76 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer Support Services9.46 Ratings00 Ratings
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Cisco Meraki vMX and Fortinet FortiGate
    Feature
    Cisco Meraki vMX
    -
    Ratings
    Fortinet FortiGate
    8.9
    40 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Identification Technologies00 Ratings8.638 Ratings
    Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.538 Ratings
    Content Inspection00 Ratings9.439 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls00 Ratings9.040 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings9.039 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console00 Ratings8.640 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging00 Ratings7.440 Ratings
    VPN00 Ratings8.640 Ratings
    High Availability00 Ratings9.535 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection00 Ratings9.538 Ratings
    Proxy Server00 Ratings10.028 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Meraki vMXFortiGate
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Meraki vMXFortiGate
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (10 ratings)
    9.0
    (67 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (26 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.2
    (10 ratings)
    9.8
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Meraki vMXFortiGate
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I think for us in our deployment model where it spoke to the hub, it certainly makes ideal sense. I would probably say with anyone that's signed in Azure or a cloud platform, obviously VMX appliance may not be suited. Anyone on Old Legacy MPLS may struggle to see a purpose for SD-WAN overlay of the top. But I think if you really want to introduce network communications that are low cost effective, solid in terms of availability and performance, a Meraki sdwan solution with the VMX appliance in the cloud is ideal.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    Fortinet FortiGate addressed an immediate security issue we had a few years ago. The device gave us a much clearer picture of the activities on our network and also more importantly, increased our awareness of threats from the internet as a whole. Fortinet FortiGate helps us to mitigate these threats with regular signature updates from Fortiguard labs, identifying certain characteristics which, once recognised by Fortinet FortiGate, can be harnessed to deploy powerful 'playbooks'.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • Works well with physical Meraki MX devices
    • Site-to-Site VPNs are easy to set up with other Meraki devices
    • Cisco Meraki vMX provides a great solution for a virtual environment, like Azure
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    • SD-WAN - Load balancing of Internet traffic is a USP of Fortigate and makes it stand tall in the competition. Be it 3 or more Internet Links, multiple Subnets/segments of users to distribute and bandwidth load balancing for links and users. SLA based monitoring of Internet Links / MPLS links, makes it even better to choose the links on the basis of performance (Latency, packet loss, Jitter etc).
    • SSL VPN configuration - As we all have WFH force (to some extend or all employee) during Covid-19, it is impossible to plan BCP without having a SSL VPN. In Fortigate, the SSL VPN configuration is very easy with the help of wizard. The deep CLI-level debugging is also very helpful in troubleshooting. Type of tunnel can be easily configured - Full Tunnel or Split Tunnel for SSL.
    • Explicit Proxy - This is also a great feature to shape and re-route the traffic, configuring the Proxy on the Firewall itself. We are using this feature in Pilot for now, and planned to rollout in few weeks looking at the success rate of the POC.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Client VPN: Cisco Meraki vMX in general needs to implement multiple VPN profiles/ group policies for client VPN
    • Alerts: Cisco Meraki vMX in general should be more consistent in sending alerts. We should receive alarms instantly.
    • Event logs: More in-depth event logs for all Meraki products, such as system crashes, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    • Documentation is missing a great deal of detail and assumes the customer and just guess and fill in the blanks themselves
    • Fortinet has lots and lots of video guides on topics that only a small percentage of customers would ever need
    • The documentation and video guides do not get updated so most is only relevant to older software versions
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    Fortinet's products have kept improving with new software releases and they continue to deliver great value. Their support is also very good. I believe that as a small enterprise, their products have given us competitive advantage delivering features and functionality that enable us to innovate and do things better. They also continue to be a leader in the markets they serve.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    The firewall runs very well, firmware updates are fairly quick but you must follow the upgrade path. Neglecting this step will cause a lot of pain. If you decide to go with Fortinet FortiGate switches and/or access points, they can be managed within the firewall which is great. We're also using the FortiAnalyzer which easily plugs into the firewall for any reporting you may require.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    We had didn't any hardware failures at our two main office locations and upgraded our units last year after using them for about 5-6 years
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    Good performance and really good integration. We have integration with Microsoft AD.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    The Support team at Fortinet is excellent. They can not only help you configure the device for what you are trying to do, they offer suggestions on improving rules, and troubleshooting issues. Their response time is fast, ensuring you are up and running immediately with no questions asked. We had a hard drive failure in one of our Fortinet Fortigate appliances. The tech answered immediately, and started rebuilding the drive after some preliminary investigations. After rebuilding, there were still errors and issues, so they dispatched a brand new Fortinet Fortigate appliance. The tech then backed up the configurations for when the new device came in, which showed up in a few hours. A restore of the configuration took less than a minute, and there were no more errors or issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    I received it a couple years afters use it and it was just to confirm my knowledge about the tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    Make sure that you have the most current version of FortiOS. Make sure all Fortigates are on the same version
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    The VMware SD wan does give some better WAN metrics, but the interface is super clunky and doesn’t support a full stack. If Meraki could give some more QoE link metrics, it would be perfect.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    [Fortinet] FortiGate is not only cost effective but it gives the comprehensive security against the APT attacks and gives the complete traffic visibility and granular control. You can easily create the VDOMs (Virtual firewall) within a Fortigate firewall and customize the dashboard as per your requirement if you have multiple VDOMs within a single firewall.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Fortinet
    No changes needed to terms and conditions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    We have over 350 locations and growing. We chose Cisco Meraki vMX because of ease of use and how it scales.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Fortinet
    My environments are pretty small (less than 100 users per location) so no issues here.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Some users it knocks down on maintenance labor/cost
    • Negative would be if you didn't really vet the feature set to the customers needs and end up having to replace it short notice.
    Incentivized
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    Fortinet
    • The pricing given to us for our firewall was well within what we were already spending for other vendors solutions and had the added value of eliminating a separate expense for a dedicated web filtering appliance.
    • We have also adopted Fortinet's security fabric approach and thus changed vendors for our switch and AP devices. These devices have come at reduced prices as compared to another previous vendor we were using, particularly in relation to ongoing annual maintenance costs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots