Aruba Orchestrator vs Cisco Meraki vMX comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco are both solutions in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.6, while Cisco is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.0. Additionally, 100% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Aruba Orchestrator and Cisco Meraki vMX based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Aruba Orchestrator vs. Cisco Meraki vMX Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Orchestrator vs. Cisco Meraki vMX

December 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

Fortinet FortiGate

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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reviewer2733462

Senior IT Officer at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees

User interface boosts network management efficiency

I use Aruba Orchestrator's advanced analytics tools. Aruba Orchestrator's analytics tools are great tools to use. We were using Cisco, but when comparing it with Cisco, Aruba is far better. The security features of Aruba Orchestrator are really good; I don't think there is any issue with security. It's a good tool in terms of the security aspects. My experience with Aruba Orchestrator is that it's a great tool to use to manage the network. Its user interface is very user-friendly; in fact, the management interface is very user-friendly. It also gives a lot of troubleshooting ideas when we are trying to troubleshoot any issues with the wireless network or the wired network. It's a very useful tool. I can say that 100% the ROI from Aruba Orchestrator is really good because we have reduced the number of people needed. There is no need to have a team of people to manage the huge network, and with a relatively smaller number of resources, we are able to manage.

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Mansukh Bhesania

MD and CEO at Aster Networks

Have worked confidently across large deployments and ensured long-term reliability for critical sectors

I have used Cisco Meraki vMX dashboard's orchestration feature with this product. The Meraki dashboard helps manage our network effectively because it is quite easy; we manage ourselves very well. Performance-wise, there is no problem with Cisco Meraki vMX's integrated analytics for network performance, as my 70 to 80 customers use Cisco only. We do business with semi-enterprise customers, and there is no competition against Cisco except for the wireless solutions from Aruba. We find it easy to promote Cisco Meraki vMX because the centralized dashboard is there for management, and the customers accept it without any problem. From a sales point of view, it is easy to integrate, and nowadays, the 93 is also part of the Meraki desktop.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The product's most valuable feature is the ease of deploying IoT security with a single click. Additionally, the frequent updates to the online database ensure that our security measures are always up to date, enhancing our protection against emerging threats."

"The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is value for money. It is very easy to deploy and scale. It saves us costs and increases bandwidth throughput."

"Fortinet FortiGate is good for helping you secure and protect mission-critical data."

"It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."

"Fortinet FortiGate has many functions, and it is one of the best next-generation firewalls with an affordable cost than other vendors."

"The solution's application control is very powerful."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"I can say that 100% the ROI from Aruba Orchestrator is really good because we have reduced the number of people needed; there is no need to have a team of people to manage the huge network, and with a relatively smaller number of resources, we are able to manage."

"The best features of Aruba Orchestrator are that it's basically a management product, so it's everything that is integrated in the SD-WAN in SASE; it's really great that it connects today all the gateways and SD-WAN solution with the SASE and the zero trust network access."

"Aruba Orchestrator has notably reduced enrollment setup times from several hours to within an hour if prepared and planned."

"We had to deal with separate management models for Wi-Fi and switches. With Aruba Orchestrator, it's now a unified solution, making things much easier for us. We log in and manage everything from a single console. It provides complete internal visibility from LAN to Wi-Fi, resulting in higher stability and easier troubleshooting. The management process is much quicker and more streamlined."

"The solution has a single pane of glass view that allows you to see everything happening in your SD-WAN world."

"The product has reduced OpEx expenditure."

"The Business Intent Overlay is a great feature."

"The most important feature is WAN optimization."

More Aruba Orchestrator pros

"Cisco Meraki vMX offers sufficient features for most customers; it is very easy to handle and proves very efficient, with the main advantages being the visibility it provides and the ease of administration."

"The Meraki dashboard helps manage our network effectively because it is quite easy; we manage ourselves very well."

"The most valuable features in Cisco Meraki vMX are easy deployment, an easy-to-read dashboard for information, and automatic load balancing for two circuits in the MX, which are the most important key features for our small business customers."

Cons

"Fortinet FortiGate has started implementing AI, however, it hasn't reached full maturity."

"A couple of things I've seen that need improvement, especially in terms of a hard coding. The driver-level active moment really is out-of-the-box and we have to have contact the customer support and sometimes it is difficult to resolve."

"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."

"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."

"There should be more testing before releasing software since it can be a little buggy sometimes when new features come out after updates."

"We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs."

"The UTM filtering needs improvement."

"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The initial setup is complex, depending on the overall planning for the entire environment."

"Aruba Orchestrator should implement dynamic certificate changes for security."

"They could provide essential training to understand the product functionality."

"The management menu should be simplified."

"The price should be improved as it is very high. The Aruba products are expensive."

"The solution can be improved by lowering the cost and making it more user-friendly for first-time users."

"The solution lacks sufficient security features."

"We also had a POC with a Juniper product, and the Juniper Mist is actually outstanding. If you compare it with Juniper, that is the reason I have given it an eight."

More Aruba Orchestrator cons

"In comparison with Aruba, I find Aruba to be far better in terms of deployment, ClearPass, and everything, which is all very easy."

"Cisco Meraki vMX needs to improve its ability to configure complex policy-based routing."

"It is not the strongest security solution, so if you want to have next-generation firewall features, you always need an additional component."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be lower."

"The pricing is flexible."

"We purchased a five-year bundle package, which worked out cheaper than competing solutions."

"Price-wise, it's at a good price point for our market."

"Fortinet FortiGate is reasonably priced."

"The pricing for the product is alright."

"It's not the cheapest, but it's value for money. Given everything we've got out of it: the DMZ port, the VPN, and the high availability, it's a pretty reasonable price."

"There is no challenge in Fortinet FortiGate pricing."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Aruba Orchestrator is free to use."

"I think it is quite expensive compared to other vendors in the market because it depends on what kind of features you really want to acquire in the product."

"The solution's licensing costs are yearly. It is not expensive, and I rate it around three to four out of ten."

"I rate the platform’s pricing a five out of ten."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	357
Midsize Enterprise	133
Large Enterprise	188

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What do you like most about Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator?

The most important feature is WAN optimization.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator?

Regarding my experience with the pricing and setup costs, I find it expensive software compared to others.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator?

It would be great if they would have a fully multi-tenant solution on their Orchestrator. Aruba SD-WAN solutions are ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Meraki vMX?

Cisco Meraki vMX needs to improve its ability to configure complex policy-based routing. The product can only be set ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Meraki vMX?

I am an architect planning for our customers to plan their enterprise connectivity via Cisco Meraki vMX and SASE. Thi...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Meraki vMX?

I have no idea about additional features that I would like to see in the next release to make it better. My customers...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 6% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Aruba Orchestrator

Compared 31% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Aruba Orchestrator

Compared 24% of the time

Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Aruba Orchestrator

Compared 14% of the time

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Aruba Orchestrator

Compared 13% of the time

Juniper Session Smart Router vs Aruba Orchestrator

Compared 11% of the time

More Aruba Orchestrator Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

January 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Orchestrator

January 2026

Download Aruba Orchestrator product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

December 2025

Download Cisco Meraki vMX product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator, Unity Orchestrator

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Aruba Orchestrator has an intuitive interface that allows you to centrally define, assign, and enforce policies across the WAN. Network managers experience the highest quality of experience to:

Centrally define, assign and enforce policies based on business intent to secure and control all application traffic across the WAN.

Orchestrator dashboards provide real time visibility into SD-WAN health and performance in a single screen, monitoring traffic throughput along with loss, latency and jitter across overlays and underlays.

Maintain the highest levels of application performance by automatically assigning application and security policies across 100s or 1000s of sites, including automated orchestration with cloud security services.

Central orchestration of network functions including SD-WAN routing, firewall, segmentation, WAN optimization, application visibility and control, and automated orchestration with cloud security services.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Cisco Meraki vMX is a cloud-based virtual appliance designed for network security, VPN, and traffic management. It simplifies scalable network operations, making it ideal for businesses seeking centralized management and deployment across multiple cloud environments and branch locations.

Cisco Meraki vMX facilitates seamless connectivity and security in cloud-native environments, enabling efficient networking between sites. It integrates effortlessly with existing infrastructure, providing robust security, VPN capabilities, and traffic control. As a virtual appliance, it supports rapid deployment, helping companies optimize their cloud networks.

What are the key features of Cisco Meraki vMX?

Scalable VPN Deployment: Offers easy, scalable VPN connectivity across branch locations and cloud services.
Centralized Management: Provides a single interface for managing traffic and security settings.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly connects with popular cloud platforms for smooth network operations.
Traffic Control: Ensures efficient management of network traffic, enhancing performance.

What benefits and ROI are common in user reviews?

Simplified Network Operations: Users note straightforward deployment and management.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces the need for physical hardware, cutting costs.
Improved Security: Provides enhanced security measures for cloud and branch networks.
Increased Flexibility: Adapts to changing network demands quickly and efficiently.

Cisco Meraki vMX sees implementation across industries requiring secure and scalable network solutions, including retail with multiple branch connections, finance needing strong security, and tech-focused organizations optimizing cloud resource usage. Its adaptability suits dynamic and expansive environments.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Orchestrator vs. Cisco Meraki vMX

December 2025

Free Report: Aruba Orchestrator vs. Cisco Meraki vMX

Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Orchestrator vs. Cisco Meraki vMX and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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