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Cisco Meraki MX vs Hillstone CloudEdge 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
411
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Cisco Meraki MX
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (3rd)
Hillstone CloudEdge
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (52nd)
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
MURALI NIDAMANURI - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Albert-Wang - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive cloud security with robust threat protection and VPN capabilities
Hillstone CloudEdge is compatible with all the mainstream public cloud providers, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Alibaba Cloud. This solution has a unified OS system for security products, ensuring that the virtual firewall has similar features to the on-premise solutions. Important features include a VPN, VTech VPN, SSL VPN, QoS, antivirus, threat protection, and sandbox capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."
"Offers good security and filtering."
"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"It is a good source for firewall protection."
"We are very happy with the general bandwidth agility we have seen from one website to another website."
"FortiGate has led to a reduction in our security budget."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"You can use your web browser to do the configuration which is easier than Cisco CLI transcripts."
"Managed centrally over the web: You can manages all your Meraki devices in a single account."
"Very easy to use and navigate."
"It is a very straightforward solution to manage."
"The product is quite secure, easy to manage, and well-connected with other devices."
"In terms of WAN optimization, it's completely cloud-controlled. Anyone can manage their network environment from a mobile phone."
"Meraki MX offers advanced filtration options, plus it behaves like a router and a firewall at the same time."
"When you try to create an IP or when you have an alert about when a website is banned, these features are helpful."
"I'd rate the solution nine out of ten."
"The solution is very easy to download and configure. The initial setup was very easy. The technical support is very good."
"Hillstone CloudEdge is compatible with all the mainstream public cloud providers, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Alibaba Cloud."
 

Cons

"Fortinet FortiGate could be improved in terms of user friendliness at the policy level and assigning URL based and keyword based features."
"There are SD-WAN network monitoring, SD-WAN features, Industrial Databases, Internet of Things, Detection, etc., however, we do have not licenses for those features. We thought that if you bought a product, you should have all of the features it offers. Why should you need to make so many extra purchases to enable features? They should have one price for the entire offering."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve if it had a cloud-managed solution."
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."
"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."
"I believe one area that could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate is posturing, specifically for remote VPN users, as there are OS-based limitations I encountered with only Windows; adding domain restrictions for VPN access would make it more competitive and useful."
"They could improve the response time and quality of support."
"Management can be improved in Meraki MX."
"The current lead time is longer for Meraki MX, and it needs to be improved."
"We feel that Cisco provides smaller features, with fewer possibilities versus other solutions out there."
"The product is quite complex to set up."
"In the next release, because the security is pretty basic, I think they could include additional security features."
"Right now, you can postpone the update but eventually, if you don't do the update, it will install the updates automatically for you and that's something that is not working for me."
"Load balancing options and ability to manage a couple of Internet connections."
"I do not have the kind of feature I need for SSL decryption in Meraki MX. It would be great to see the SSL decryption feature in Meraki MX."
"There is room for improvement in AI features, particularly for zero-day attacks and providing maintenance guidance."
"There is room for improvement in AI features, particularly for zero-day attacks and providing maintenance guidance."
"The solution needs more granular level reporting on system usage."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Other firewalls are more expensive than Fortinet FortiGate, such as the Azure firewall."
"Fortinet prices are around $600 for the small 40F model, and for licenses, the simplest option is about $300 for a year. They sell licenses that can last for 1, 2, 3, or 5 years."
"It is more affordable than Check Point and Palo Alto. Another thing is that all the features and the OS remain the same irrespective of the size of the device. Pricing-wise, Fortinet typically provides one-year support with the firewall appliance. There is also an option for three years which is how their licensing works."
"A year or two years back, its price was competitive and reasonable. That was one of the reasons that people easily switched to Fortinet. Over the last two years, the prices have increased drastically. However, the prices of others have also increased. An advantage is there from the price point but not as much as it was previously."
"If you compare Fortinet FortiGate with Sophos and other firewall products available in the market, this solution is affordable."
"It has a competitive price."
"Its pricing is good. The advantages of Fortinet FortiGate over its competitors include good pricing and meeting our requirements at a lower cost."
"If the price of the license in Fortinet FortiGate was less expensive it would be better."
"I think the price is comparable with other solutions of the same kind. Depending on the use case it could be cheaper or more expensive, I think it offers good value."
"In my country, the product is cheap compared to the UK because of the differences in taxes."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is more expensive than other solutions, but it is a cloud-managed network solution and support is given at the moment you call. That give a very big plus."
"It is a good global solution in terms of the price and features, but because we sell this solution in dollars, sometimes we don't get to sell this solution in Brazil because the dollar is very expensive. The price of every project is different. It varies depending upon the project, scenario, and client."
"It is an expensive solution. There is a five-year licensing requirement. We already renewed licenses for all our devices."
"The price is slightly increased, but reasonable."
"​Other content filtering solutions that I have used had more bells and whistles, but given the cost, complexity, and management overhead, I am very pleased with Meraki’s solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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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.
What needs improvement with Hillstone CloudEdge?
There is room for improvement in AI features, particularly for zero-day attacks and providing maintenance guidance. M...
What is your primary use case for Hillstone CloudEdge?
Our primary use case is to provide cloud-based security solutions for customers using public cloud platforms. We dist...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600
No data available
 

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
Hyatt, ONS
LinkTime
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki MX vs. Hillstone CloudEdge and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
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