Cisco Meraki MX vs Stormshield Network Security comparison

Cisco and Stormshield are both solutions in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category. Cisco is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0, while Stormshield is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco holds a 9.1% mindshare in UTMU, compared to Stormshield’s 4.0% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Stormshield users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

Stormshield Network Security and Cisco Meraki MX compete in the network security space, each with distinct advantages. Cisco Meraki MX seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced features and cloud management capabilities, appealing to those in need of a flexible security solution.

Features: Stormshield Network Security provides comprehensive threat protection through features like the Stormshield Analyzer, object group-based firewalling, and robust security integration. Meraki MX offers a cloud management platform, auto VPN capabilities for remote workers, and advanced security features like threat detection and traffic shaping.

Room for Improvement: Stormshield could benefit from a more intuitive user interface, enhanced scalability, and improved cloud integration. Meraki MX might improve by offering more budget-friendly pricing, expanding firmware support, and enhancing customization options for specific enterprise needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Meraki MX is favored for its ease of deployment and cloud-based management, making it simple for IT teams to deploy remotely. Stormshield may have a steeper learning curve, but it compensates with robust customer support, ensuring help is readily available for troubleshooting.

Pricing and ROI: Stormshield Network Security is often more budget-friendly, appealing to those with immediate budget constraints. Cisco Meraki MX, while more expensive initially, is seen as providing substantial ROI through sophisticated features and scalability, making it an attractive long-term investment for businesses looking to integrate cloud management with security.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Meraki MX vs. Stormshield Network Security Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX vs. Stormshield Network Security

March 2026

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 30.5%, down from 37.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Meraki MX is 9.1%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Stormshield Network Security is 4.0%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Unified Threat Management (UTM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	30.5%
Cisco Meraki MX	9.1%
Stormshield Network Security	4.0%
Other	56.4%

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

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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MURALI NIDAMANURI

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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Zsolt Jónás

System Administrator at NaxoNet

Advanced GUI and layered security have supported compliance and simplified intrusion prevention

I haven't had a task that I couldn't solve with Stormshield Network Security. The active-active high availability solution would be beneficial because currently, if you build a high availability solution with Stormshield Network Security, you have a main device and another one is a backup device. The HA can switch between them, but it would be good to have a master-master solution, not just a master-slave one. I could set a URL that I can call to update the DNS record. Currently, Stormshield Network Security devices support DynDNS, which is not a usual feature request from a server environment. I have my own solution instead of DynDNS because I don't prefer it, so I have my own service for that. However, the GUI does not support using a custom service instead of DynDNS. I had to solve it in the console on Stormshield Network Security device, but it would be much better if it was reachable on the GUI. I had to figure out a trick for the IPsec configuration. In the IPsec config, we have to provide the remote side's IP address, but it's always changing. This means that an office, for example a company that has an office but without a fixed IP address, cannot be used with IPsec VPN.

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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

"What I appreciate the most about Fortinet FortiGate is that it has a very large integration using Fabric, which they call Fabric Connectors."

"Fortinet FortiGate has it all."

"It is user friendly, and has all the features you need."

"With FortiClient, you can easily connect when you are home, check out what you want to do, and connect to your network when you are not at work. You can switch on servers and you can check what is wrong."

"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."

"Customers keep on improving their licenses. The solution remains scalable and flexible. On-premises deployments may have some limitations. However, cloud deployments offer a high degree of flexibility."

"FortiGate has a strong security topic which allows all of the Fortinet devices to communicate and share information which makes their security more powerful."

"Valuable features include the Web Application Firewall, and it even has DLP (data leak prevention)."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The most valuable feature of Meraki MX is I can manage the solution from anywhere remotely, I can throttle bandwidth, and create all rules. Additionally, it is secure for our customers."

"Simple to manage."

"Now, with Cisco Meraki MX84, we have a SD-WAN, and we only need Internet in all our branches, thus, we have an easy solution to connect new branches and it is very fast."

"The features we have found most valuable are the firewall and the monitoring tools."

"The internet traffic shaping has been very valuable."

"The security level of our organization has changed by using Meraki MX Firewalls; we didn't have the UTM before but now we have sandboxing, tray scanning, attack preventions, and monitorization, and our security level has improved."

"In terms of WAN optimization, it's completely cloud-controlled. Anyone can manage their network environment from a mobile phone."

"A strong, reliable solution for small companies with little or no dedicated IT department."

More Cisco Meraki MX pros

"Fortinet, Dell SonicWall and Check Point because these products offer a wide range of features that are not available with Netasq."

"Customer service is very good, because of their presales support helping me with initial setup I decided to go with NetASQ in the first place, and support after the sale has been equally good as well."

"The solution has improved my organization because I can see what traffic is happening and I can use it to block and prevent attacks."

"This solution is quick and easy to configure."

"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."

"It's an easy, straightforward management platform to use."

"The most valuable features are the IPS, the firewall function, and the price."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page."

More Stormshield Network Security pros

Cons

"Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created."

"I face difficulties integrating Fortinet FortiGate with Active Directory."

"The stability and performance of Fortinet FortiGate are mixed, as some features are quite good and very stable while others are quite new and very buggy."

"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters."

"They've become quite expensive."

"Difficult to add or define, and not that easy to configure and manage."

"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."

"There are no areas that need improvement at this point in time."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Direct logging is something that can be introduced. In the absence of cloud management, the possibility of local configurations and on-premise logins becomes restricted. This limitation stands as a primary concern. When it comes to resolving issues, the inability to access login options hampers troubleshooting efforts. The stability is noteworthy; but when compared to alternative products, its stability is comparatively lower. Additionally, certain limitations are observed in terms of remote control. Price-wise, the solution stands out for its competitive and cost-effective nature compared to other alternatives. Operationally, it is user-friendly and requires minimal effort from administrators, making configuration hassle-free."

"I believe Cisco Meraki MX can be improved if its price were lower; it would be significantly better."

"It would be great if the Meraki devices let us see, in real time, the internet demand on a single device."

"Meraki tech support staff have a lot more visibility into your network than you do, which is frustrating at times. I understand the approach is to keep the dashboard easier to understand. This will frustrate more advanced users at times."

"The configuration options for firewall and IPS have limitations."

"In the next release, because the security is pretty basic, I think they could include additional security features."

"Scalability is an obvious concern with Meraki MX. You can't scale beyond some value. They are not highly enterprise grade, when you have hundreds of thousands of people it is very difficult to scale in Meraki."

"However, the pricing is a bit high compared to other vendors such as Fortinet or Huawei."

More Cisco Meraki MX cons

"The product must improve its pricing."

"It could be better if it were more user-friendly. It's too complicated for us to use it. The price could be better as well."

"Improvement is needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer."

"The biggest issue was their support department was not able to help us, then everything stops. This is a no-go area for me."

"Being more cost effective. I went with a pair of Watchguard M300 recently when buying a new firewall cluster for our own use because it was way cheaper than NetASQ/Stormshield N700 while being faster, and it offers true multi-master firewall clustering if needed."

"A more user-friendly interface would be helpful."

"The SD card could be more secure."

"An application firewall like other next generation firewalls have."

More Stormshield Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has a competitive price."

"It is less expensive than a Cisco solution."

"The pricing is justified. It's a little pricey, but what you pay for is what you get."

"The support subscription for the solution is annual. You are paying for support and there are two levels of support, professional and advanced."

"The price is fair compared to the other competitors."

"I think that the pricing is fair."

"The licensing costs are very competitive."

"Setup costs and pricing depends on many variables, but it's mostly affordable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The pricing could always be improved — especially with the shape the economy is in at the moment."

"The pricing for Meraki MX is all right, but as the hardware needs to be licensed, the cost depends on the complexity of the device and the term. Pricing could be $100 to $10,000 yearly or even more for a more complex device."

"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."

"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."

"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 product’s pricing depends on the discount Cisco gives to different people."

More Cisco Meraki MX pricing and cost advice

"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."

"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."

"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."

"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."

"I think the price is good."

"The pricing could be better."

"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	360
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	190

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	42
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

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

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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...

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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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki MX?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cisco Meraki MX is that for more than five years, Meraki li...

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What advice do you have for others considering Stormshield Network Security?

The tool is like a firewall and works well. I don't have any issue with it. I rate it an eight out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 21% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 4% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco Meraki MX Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 10% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 7% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 7% of the time

OPNsense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 2% of the time

More Stormshield Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX

March 2026

Download Cisco Meraki MX product report

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security

February 2026

Download Stormshield Network Security product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600

NETASQ Firewalls

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

Cisco Meraki MX offers cloud-managed security with user-friendly setup and efficient management, enhancing VPN and firewall functionalities for businesses.

Cisco Meraki MX is known for its robust cloud-based network management, featuring AutoVPN, SD-WAN, and advanced security. Its centralized control over firewall, traffic shaping, and monitoring ensures excellent connectivity and security. The interface allows easy management by non-technical staff, offering remote access and seamless network performance through real-time alerts and troubleshooting. It supports global connectivity with minimal effort, addressing needs across small to enterprise environments. Despite its strengths, users point out areas needing improvement like load balancing, VPN features, more flexible logging, and session capabilities. Pricing, integration limits, and licensing need enhancement.

What are the key features of Cisco Meraki MX?

AutoVPN: Enables automatic VPN configuration for secure, site-to-site connections.
SD-WAN: Optimizes traffic routes for increased performance and reliability.
Advanced Security: Offers unified threat management, intrusion prevention, and content filtering.
Centralized Management: Simplifies operations with remote monitoring and configuration.
Traffic Shaping: Prioritizes critical business applications to maximize performance.

What benefits should users consider?

Ease of Deployment: Simplified installation reduces setup time and cost.
Real-Time Alerts: Ensures proactive issue identification and resolution.
Scalability: Supports growth with seamless integration and management of multiple sites.
Global Connectivity: Maintains efficient connections across geographic locations with minimal effort.

In industries like retail, finance, and education, Cisco Meraki MX provides enhanced security and connectivity. Retail chains benefit from easy VPN setups for secure multi-site networking, while educational institutions find value in its ability to manage large campuses efficiently. Financial services leverage its robust security features to protect sensitive data, ensuring compliance and trust.

Cisco

NETASQ's integrated intrusion prevention engine uses protocol conformity analysis, application filtering and antivirus analysis to inspect authorized traffic flows and strengthen application security. NETASQ enables you to establish and configure user-based security policies, giving you greater control over which network resources each user is authorized to access.

Stormshield

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

ACESUR group, Ministry of Education Oman, Anios Laboratories, Zain, DLM Location

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX vs. Stormshield Network Security

March 2026

Free Report: Cisco Meraki MX vs. Stormshield Network Security

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