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Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX comparison

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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Fortinet FortiGate offers cost-effective, robust security, reducing expenses, enhancing efficiency, easy implementation, quick ROI, and improved network management.
Sentiment score
6.9
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall provides network protection with minimal upkeep, proactive threat blocking, centralized management, and cost-effective upgrades.
Sentiment score
5.8
Cisco Meraki MX saves time and costs with easy management, durable equipment, and reduced training, enhancing ROI significantly.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
BDM Fortinet & BDM Teamlead at Exclusive Networks
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
Staff Infrastructure & Security Engineer at Mozn Systems
The centralized management and automation features have reduced manual monitoring efforts, saving our IT team several hours per week.
Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiGate's customer service is generally praised for responsiveness, though some users experience delays in critical situations.
Sentiment score
7.5
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall's support is praised for availability but criticized for inconsistency and complex interfaces needing frequent help.
Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco Meraki MX is praised for its responsive, knowledgeable 24/7 support, receiving high ratings for expertise and problem-solving.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
The support team is responsive and knowledgeable, assisting us promptly whenever we have faced configuration questions or technical issues.
Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
Barracuda's partner support is better than the majority, and it stands out as one of their strengths.
Product Manager - Cyber Security at M247 Ltd Miami
The overall security has been satisfactory, with no breaches.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
When we raise a ticket with Meraki MX, they instantly become available to support us for configurations or troubleshooting.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Cisco's TAC support for Cisco Meraki MX is excellent because no other OEM provides support at this level.
Technical Presales at Vcom Teachnologies
Cisco is one of the best vendors in the market.
Presales System Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable and popular for SMEs but requires careful design and may incur scaling costs and licensing constraints.
Sentiment score
7.7
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall efficiently scales for various deployments, offering flexibility and cloud features, though may lack some advanced features.
Sentiment score
6.8
Cisco Meraki MX is praised for ease of setup but may require hardware changes for large-scale enterprise networks.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
IT Manager at Daltons Limited
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
Cewa Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
General Surgery Specialist at Helwan University Cairo
Its flexible licensing and hybrid deployment options allow it to adapt to evolving network requirements, ensuring continuous security and reliable operations.
Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
When positioning into customers, some larger enterprise customers tend to move towards one of the top three: either Cisco, Fortinet, or Palo Alto.
Product Manager - Cyber Security at M247 Ltd Miami
When you have hundreds of thousands of people it is very difficult to scale in Meraki.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We have Juniper solutions, and I would say the Juniper solutions can scale better, however, this solution is still very scalable.
CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The biggest one is for 120 users, but our company is a big one.
IT Manager at Alonso Alonsolaw
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiGate is praised for its stability, with effective long-term performance and improvements in newer firmware versions.
Sentiment score
8.2
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is praised for reliability, stability, minimal downtime, and effective technical support despite occasional bugs.
Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Meraki MX is praised for stability and support, with minor issues often resolved and strong user satisfaction.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
Manager, Information Technology at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
CISO at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Its robust infrastructure and real-time monitoring give us the confidence that our network remains secure and operational at all times.
Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
We have very few issues with Barracuda Firewall, even in the case of zero-day vulnerabilities.
Product Manager - Cyber Security at M247 Ltd Miami
Version 8.0 had issues, but the newer version 9.0 seems to have improved performance regarding these issues.
System Engineer for Network & Security at Projekt IP d.o.o.
There have been no outages, no stability issues, and we have not found any vulnerabilities during security audits.
Technical Presales at Vcom Teachnologies
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate needs enhanced UI, simplified licensing, improved performance, reporting, third-party integration, and expanded automation features.
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall needs improvements in GUI, VPN reliability, analytics, email categorization, support, and user-friendliness for better usability.
Cisco Meraki MX needs enhancements in load balancing, integration, logging, interface, pricing, enterprise features, session handling, and support responsiveness.
When considering Sophos XG, which we also use, the logging and reporting functionality is notably more efficient.
Senior IT specialist at SAUDIA ALIRLINES
These sessions should be around five to ten minutes long, allowing users and partners to quickly grasp the information without disrupting their daily tasks.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The solution should be able to implement machine learning and analytics of all the logs for threat detection and protection.
Senior Systems Engineer at Caribbean Development Company
Integration with AI would be helpful as modern attacks often utilize AI.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
It would be beneficial to merge the existing application policy with the main policy into a single unified policy to improve manageability.
System Engineer for Network & Security at Projekt IP d.o.o.
One area that could be enhanced is the user interface, making it slightly more intuitive for new users.
Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
It should automatically remediate and find out the issue and then resolve it on its own without interrupting the work of the employees.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Data is the only path, so optimization is essential.
Chief Commercial Officer at InnovAge Home Care
An improvement would be to use Cisco Meraki MX as a software solution as well, which might reduce the cost.
Technical Presales at Vcom Teachnologies
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Fortinet FortiGate costly initially, but cheaper overall, despite some high renewal and setup costs.
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall offers reasonable pricing with a flexible, competitive model, plus perks like free hardware upgrades and easy purchasing.
Cisco Meraki MX provides flexible licensing and is praised for ease of setup, management, and having a lifetime warranty.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
Network & System Admin at Invoke Studios
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
IT Infrastructure Architect at Apotek 1
It is about 20% cheaper.
Network Security Engineer at TD SYNNEX
Our experience with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pricing and licensing has been reasonable and transparent.
Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
The license price of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is lower than others, and maintenance or support is included.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
It is neither the cheapest nor the most expensive option available.
System Engineer for Network & Security at Projekt IP d.o.o.
I get it for $25,000, a device that can connect up to 75-100 users, whereas in Meraki MX, it goes to 75,000-80,000 per access point.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The price could be reduced by around 30% to make it more comfortable.
Technical Presales at Vcom Teachnologies
In terms of pricing, I would say it is not the cheapest, but it was comparable to the others.
CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate provides robust, flexible security solutions with key features like web filtering, SSL VPN, SD-WAN, and centralized management.
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall provides robust security, user-friendly management, and enhanced performance with features like VPN, TINA tunnels, and threat protection.
Cisco Meraki MX offers easy deployment, cloud management, advanced security, and scalability, making it ideal for diverse network environments.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring.
General Manager Group IT at DART GLOBAL LOGISTICS PTE. LTD.
We got a firewall and gave an SSL VPN to my client to connect to their servers, after which, such kind of activities involving ransomware attacks stopped.
Owner at Mindware Computer Solutions
This integration helps secure our data and applications from attackers trying to gain access and detect malicious activity.
Product Manager - Cyber Security at M247 Ltd Miami
The real-time monitoring helps us quickly identify unusual traffic patterns and potential threats, allowing us to respond immediately and maintain secure and uninterrupted network operations.
Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
The most valuable features of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall include antivirus protection, anti-DDoS, and IPS.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
Meraki MX is among those top solutions in their exceptional approach towards VPN-less, Zero Trust client access to office private networks.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Advanced security is the second tier of Cisco Meraki MX. It brings you the main next-generation firewalling features such as URL filtering, advanced malware protection, and threat protection.
Presales System Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
We understand that Cisco solutions are very reliable, and we really like the simple management.
CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
580
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
34th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (14th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (22nd), IoT Security (7th), WAN Edge (14th)
Cisco Meraki MX
Ranking in Firewalls
21st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 19.1%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Meraki MX is 3.5%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate19.1%
Cisco Meraki MX3.5%
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall0.6%
Other76.8%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Muhammad Talha Bashir - PeerSpot reviewer
Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
Centralized security management has protected our hybrid network and supports secure remote work
Overall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is very effective, but there is always room for improvement. One area that could be enhanced is the user interface, making it slightly more intuitive for new users. Additionally, advanced reporting and analytics could be more customized to provide deeper insights. Despite this, the firewall performs reliably and meets most of our organizational needs. One additional improvement that could enhance the experience is faster troubleshooting support or more detailed guided documentation for complex configurations. While the firewall is reliable, having more step-by-step tutorials or video guidance could help new users set up and optimize. Overall, the enhancement would make the platform even more user-friendly without affecting its current strong performance.
MURALI NIDAMANURI - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Experience improved network management with flexible and secure connections
I recommend that Meraki MX should improve to be a better solution for the next release by being more competent so that we can offer it as a primary solution among all other brands, although I don't have any specific feedback, while the competitors are also ahead of these solutions. Enhancing user experience is always required. Enhancing the seamless connectivity is crucial and user experience enhancement is needed daily, otherwise people find it outdated. New features should look and be dynamically connected, and users should not be bothered frequently when connectivity issues occur. It should automatically remediate and find out the issue and then resolve it on its own without interrupting the work of the employees.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise132
Large Enterprise188
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise16
 

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...
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...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
The license price of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is lower than others, and maintenance or support is included.
What needs improvement with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
The interface of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is not as user-friendly as others. It is a bit complicated and could be ...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
We use Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for protection in our network and IPsec. We also set up BGP for our customers.
Fortigate 60d vs. Meraki MX67 for a small company without a dedicated IT Department
We have Meraki Mx devices now, we are looking to replace them. But that is because the Meraki MX platform lacks SSL I...
Which is better - Meraki MX or Cisco ASA Firewall?
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports netw...
What do you like most about Meraki MX?
I am happy with the technical support for the solution. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
Barracuda NextGen Firewall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls
MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600
 

Overview

 

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
ARZ, Bauer, CBCX Technologies, Diamant-groep, Eissmann Group Automotive, European Youth Olympics, Exalo Drilling, FineLine Technologies, Geocell, Grimaldi, Infront Sports & Media, Odlo, Schenker Deutschland AG, Tilak, Verbandsgeneinde Zell, Conservas El Cidacos S.A., Institute for Emergency Medicine and Medicine Management, Erwin Muller GmbH, Info-Tech: NGF is Champion, Schoellerbank, IZB Informatik-Zentrum, RHI AG, Berglandmilch, Antenne Bayern, Sanochemia
Hyatt, ONS
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. Cisco Meraki MX and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.