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Cisco Meraki MX vs Hillstone E-Series 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

Cisco Meraki MX
Ranking in Firewalls
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (4th)
Hillstone E-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
40th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (10th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (24th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Cisco Meraki MX is 3.8%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Meraki MX3.8%
Hillstone E-Series0.9%
Other95.3%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

ChrisYankajtis - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Cloud-managed firewalls have simplified clinic networks and have empowered rapid remote deployment
If there was anything I can say I don't about it, I wish the automation was a little bit more friendly. If someone doesn't know too much about automations, I wish it had the ability within the platform to say, 'I want to run this automation within this network. Here's the new network that's coming on board. I'm utilizing the same firewalls, the same switches, same MVs. Here's the subnet that I'm going to use. Here are the IPs for the devices.' It should be able to give me that run book and configure it. That would be my main thing within the automation. I don't have much else to complain about. Everything is pretty straightforward. Back in the day, about five years ago, I tried to run 10 terabytes of data on an MX95 with a gig fiber coming in. The firewall was doing all the routing at the time and all the Layer 3. I did see some degraded performance trying to push that data through my MS350 10 gig switch. Once I moved the Layer 3 off the firewall and placed it on my core switch, I saw a better improvement. However, that was five years ago, and I'm not pushing that type of data out now. If the splash page was a little bit more appealing and more configurable, I think that would be nice.
TahirMahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Zubair Feeds
Offers good features like URL filtering, IPS, and IDS to users
We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. When we updated the tool's features, everything became okay. The tool only had some memory-related problems. It took the tool a month to fix the issues.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature that I appreciate most about Cisco Meraki MX is the visibility."
"WAN optimization is the best feature of the solution."
"Traffic Shaping: The device lets you decide how you want to use your internet services. Due to the fact that Meraki can accept dual WAN, you can decide the way you balance the data traffic."
"The customer support for Cisco Meraki MX has been excellent."
"The solution is easy to set up."
"Cisco Meraki MX is far more user-friendly, which is why I switched."
"Ease of management is the best thing about the solution."
"Deployment takes no more than one working day."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."
"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."
"Five out of five ROI."
"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."
"If an organization is not looking for a web proxy, it's a very, very good product."
"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."
 

Cons

"You cannot use switching behaviors as you see on the Meraki switch."
"We can’t access GUI management and CLI opening features when the Internet is unavailable."
"My experience with the price, implementation cost, and licenses of Cisco Meraki MX is that it could be a bit cheaper; it is not a cheap product."
"Expensive licensing and firewall stops immediately working if the licence is not renewed at the expiration date."
"It can always improve pricewise regarding throughput."
"For our use case, there is not anything specific that needs to change."
"You can only have one tunnel in the whole infrastructure — one tunnel with one device."
"For this solution, Meraki is still more expensive than FortiGate. The FortiGate license is still less than the Meraki license."
"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."
"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."
"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."
"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"The room for improvement would be the SSL VPN license cost."
"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."
"The current usage reporting is very basic. I would like to be able to access more granular data."
"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license cost depends on the box. We acquired a different product line. We are dealing with MX appliance now, that is, MX6, MX54, MX100, MX250, MX450. Every box has got an identity, and it has got its own specification. Every box has got a different license fee. We deployed Meraki MX in UAE when it was not a mature product. We took a risk, but we were successful. We saved a huge amount of money after implementing and removing all the MPLS and leased lines. We got a broadband connection because Meraki MX could work on a broadband connection. We have drastically saved a very good amount of money, which was one of the successful things apart from the successful solution."
"In my country, the product is cheap compared to the UK because of the differences in taxes."
"Pricing varies as per the type of license."
"I rate the tool's price a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is very expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"It can always improve pricewise regarding throughput."
"The price varies depending on the hardware platform as well as the type of license and whether you're adding security or not."
"The solution is expensive compared to other vendors but you can get good discounts if you know the account manager. The product is less expensive than a normal Cisco subscription. The tool's hardware warranty is a lifetime but you need to purchase support which comes in three, five, and seven years subscriptions."
"The tool's pricing is reasonable. It depends on the model. The product's pricing is around 600 USD. You need to buy a software license to activate the features. You need to pay around 150 USD for that."
"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."
"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."
"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Construction Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business52
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

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 Inspection, Granular Firewall rules (Block only, no allow setting), client vpn re...
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 network security and firewall options. We researched both Meraki and ASA. We liked t...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki MX?
I find the pricing for Cisco Meraki MX reasonable and competitive given the features provided and the target market. I believe it is acceptable.
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Also Known As

MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hyatt, ONS
Bank of China Macao, Instituto Tecnológico Bolivariano, Ministry of Labor in San Salvador, FEDCO
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Meraki MX vs. Hillstone E-Series and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.