Cisco Secure Firewall vs Meraki MX comparison

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2022

We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Meraki MX based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

Ease of Deployment: Cisco Secure Firewall received mixed reviews regarding the ease of its initial setup. Some reviewers say it is straightforward while others say it can be complex. Most Meraki MX reviewers say the initial setup is straightforward.

Features: Users of both products are happy with their performance, stability, and scalability. Cisco Secure Firewall reviewers mention being very satisfied with the remote VPN features. A few Cisco ASA Firewall users say the solution is difficult to configure. Meraki MX users write that it is secure, easy to use and flexible. Several Meraki MX users mention they would like to see improved monitoring capabilities.

Pricing: Cisco Secure Firewall users note that the price of the product is high. In contrast, most Meraki MX users say that the price of the product is fair.

ROI: Reviewers of both products report a significant ROI.

Service and Support: Reviewers of both products report being very satisfied with the level of support they receive.

Comparison Results: Meraki MX is the winner in this comparison. It is easier to set up and more user-friendly than Cisco ASA Firewall. In addition, Meraki MX is a less expensive solution than Cisco Secure Firewall.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Meraki MX Report (Updated: July 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Meraki MX

July 2024

Download the complete report

Helped 793,295 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 22.6%, up from 18.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Firewall is 6.2%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki MX is 3.7%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Unique Categories:

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

19.7%

WAN Edge

21.4%

Cisco Security Portfolio

8.2%

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

16.3%

Featured Reviews

Andrei Vaskin

Specialist at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

May 10, 2023

Feature-rich, affordable, and has good performance

It is deployed on-premises. Our customers prefer to deploy not only Fortinet devices but all security devices on-premises. They rarely use cloud licenses. Some customers only buy it from us, and for some customers, we also set it up. Its setup is easy for us, but not every company wants to use our service for setting it up because of the cost. They prefer to install it themselves. In some cases, it could be hard for them. In terms of the implementation strategy, we first try to understand what problem a customer wants to solve by using FortiGate. We collect a lot of information about a customer's network, such as protocols and devices being used. We try to prepare this device in our local lab. We preload the device and send it to the customer, and then we finalize the installation in the customer's building. We have very technical staff, and we do not have difficulties with installations. We have had situations where customers do not have much experience with it, and then we recommend them to go for certain features such as IPS, antivirus, etc. The deployment duration depends on the size of the environment, but generally, it does not take more than one or two months.

Read full review

Paul Stadlbauer

System Engineer at Telekom Deutschland GmbH

Feb 21, 2023

Scales well, has good documentation, and helps with secure access

One con of Cisco Secure Firewalls is that Java is used a lot for the older generation of these firewalls. Java is used for the ASA and the ASDM tool for administration. It's an outdated way of administering, and it's also a security risk to use this kind of solution. This is a pro of Firepower or the newer generation of firewalls because they are using HTML for administration. In general, they can make it easier to manage the solutions. They can make it easier in terms of administration and provide a single tool for different firewalling solutions. They have different tools to manage different firewalls, such as Firepower or ASA. Sometimes, both are on the same thing. You have ASA with Firepower modules, so you manage some of the things via HTML, and then you manage some of the things via another management tool. It's not seamless. It should be bundled together in one solution.

Read full review

Rick Rutledge

Network Systems Administrator at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees

Jun 28, 2017

Features we most use are the SD-WAN and auto failover for dual ISP connections. Seem to work in harsh environments very well.

As the only network admin in the company, I have to monitor nine remote sites (production and shipping facilities) and 12 remote VPN connections from various smaller facilities. Each location is a processing facility, which, when in season, runs 24 x 7 for the duration they are in production. During this time frame, not having a tech support person on site to fix problems is a huge cost savings for us. I see problems usually before they are large enough to need someone on site and with the cloud services I can remotely control ports, firewall connections and equipment online. Meraki products are very solid and seem to work in harsh environments very well.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The base firewall features are quite valuable to us."

"I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection. It is also simple to use."

"The pipe filter application is an outstanding feature."

"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."

"Advanced routing (RIP, OSPF, BGP, PBR). It gives you a seamless and simple integration into a large network."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."

"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."

"It's great for capturing the traffic and troubleshooting it."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The most valuable feature of the Firepower solution is FireSIGHT, which can be easily managed and is user-friendly."

"The initial setup was not complex."

"Being able to use it as a policy-based VPN is valuable. It's very easy to understand. It's very easy to troubleshoot."

"URL filtering is valuable."

"Cisco ASA works very nicely from an administration perspective. The management of the device is very nice. The ASDM (Adaptive Security Device Manager) is the software that we use and it is very easy to configure using the GUI."

"Its in-depth monitoring and analysis help us to make better decisions and policies."

"The most valuable feature must be AnyConnect. We have quite a few customers who use it. It is easy to use and the stablest thing that we have. We have experienced some issues on all our VPN clients, but AnyConnect has been the stablest one."

"Stability, high availability of services, and very high MTBU were the most valuable features for me."

More Cisco Secure Firewall pros

"Simple to manage."

"Both the scalability and the scalability are great with Meraki MX."

"Site to Site VPN: The device can establish a VPN connection to multiple sites in a mesh environment in seconds, and without complex VPN knowledge."

"In general, Meraki MX is easy to work with."

"The dashboard is very intuitive and easy to understand."

"Point-to-point VPNs can dynamically follow IP changes with no need for static IPs."

"In a week, we can make new policy and view what all our users did."

"The most valuable feature is that we didn't have any problems with Meraki MX."

More Meraki MX pros

Cons

"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."

"Its price could be better."

"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."

"Some features of Fortinet FortiGate are actually fee enabled that are inconvenient for deploying in production. Other issues relate to isolation with Cisco products and your server."

"The solution is very expensive."

"Fortinet doesn't provide multiple virtual firewalls which would facilitate end users and customers."

"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."

"The user interface could be improved."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The licensing needs simplification."

"Usually, the customers are satisfied, but I am going to recommend that all clients upgrade to FirePOWER management. I want Cisco to improve the feature called anti-spam. We use a Cisco only email solution, that's why we need the anti-spam on email facility."

"There are some limitations with SSL. Regarding the security assessment for the ISO 27000 standard, there are certain features that Cisco needs to scale up. Not all products support it, so you need to be slightly careful, especially on the site track."

"10Gb interfaces should be available on more models."

"I would like to see them release a patch for ASAv with cross-platform FirePower integration."

"Cisco ASA is not a next-generation firewall product."

"The Sandbox and the Web Censoring in this solution need to be improved."

"Recently, we have been having an issue with the ASA firewall. We haven't found the root cause yet and are still working on it. We failed over the firewall from active to passive and suddenly that resolved the issue. We are now working to find the root cause."

More Cisco Secure Firewall cons

"From the improvement perspective, we need more monitoring capabilities. We want to have full-based access visibility, such as, what is happening when something is trying to reach and it is denying. We cannot see some parts of it. The integration of active directory with this product is not very fruitful. It has some bugs or lacks in the functionality of active directory integration. We are unable to identify where exactly and whether it has really applied our policy."

"Meraki MX can come across as an expensive solution."

"It is very expensive."

"The client-side VPN is weak. The product could be improved with deployment templates."

"The product is quite complex to set up."

"Expensive licensing and firewall stops immediately working if the license is not renewed at expiration date."

"You cannot use switching behaviors as you see on the Meraki switch."

"We had minor issues with Meraki MX. We had a couple of RMAs, so that could be an area for improvement, but in terms of how the RMAs went, the turnaround time and getting those back into redeployment were quick. Another area for improvement in Meraki MX is that when you're scaling for multiple locations, you need to use the same model, but the model you'd need is only available for a short time. The specific model you require could be out of stock, or Meraki isn't making that model anymore, so Meraki should improve that."

More Meraki MX cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our licensing costs are on a yearly basis."

"It's very affordable."

"The cost is too high... They have to focus on more features with less cost for the customer. If you see the market, where it's going, there are a lot of players offering more features for less cost."

"Its pricing is good. It's average or normal as compared to Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls."

"Its pricing is fine. It is on a yearly basis. Other than the licensing fee, there is no extra fee."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is better than Cisco, Check Point, and Palo Alto. In terms of pricing, it's probably a better-priced firewall solution overall."

"It's a very full-featured and it's priced well solution."

"We are on an annual license to use Fortinet FortiGate."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"This product requires licenses for advanced features including Snort, IPS, and malware detection."

"The pricing and licensing are getting more complicated, and I'd like that to be simpler."

"This solution might be expensive, but it is economical in the long run."

"This is an expensive product, although when you buy this solution, you can do many things so it provides good value for the investment."

"We paid about $7,000 for the Cisco firewall, plus another small Cisco router and the lead switch. It was under the combined license. It's a final agreement."

"I just bought it off the shelf, and I'm using it with my previous one, so I have not spent that much."

"Our subscription costs, just for the firewalls, is between $400,000 and $500,000 a year."

"You get what you pay for. It's always priced based on what you get and what it can handle. It's acceptable."

More Cisco Secure Firewall pricing and cost advice

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

"It can always improve pricewise regarding throughput."

"Its licensing cost could be better."

"The product's price depends on use cases."

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

"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 larger MX products are on the expensive side."

"The price varies depending on the hardware platform as well as the type of license and whether you're adding security or not."

More Meraki MX pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Firewalls solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user206346

Security Consultant at Webernetz.net - Network Security Consulting

Mar 11, 2015

Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks

Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…

Read full review

Answers from the Community

Netanya Carmi

Content Manager at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

Nov 24, 2021

Which is better - Meraki MX or Cisco ASA Firewall?

See 2 answers

Leah Fainchtein Buenavida

Tech Blogger

Nov 8, 2021

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 that ASA provides a solid VPN setup and integrates with other Cisco security offerings. Cisco ASA is great for routing and accessing remote office locations via the remote VPN. We also liked the high availability and customizable nating (Network Access Translation). It is very reliable and easy to use. You can easily configure a site-to-site VPN to connect multiple sites. The support is great - they respond 24/7/365 and there is a lot of documentation available. The downside is that ASAs are aging. Therefore, Cisco ASAs are best suited to small businesses. If you need something affordable that gets the job done, ASA is a good option. We chose Cisco Meraki, because, in our opinion, it is a step forward from ASA. The level of security and intrusion detection is great, and because it is cloud-based, it is easy to change the configuration without downtime. Logging is very comprehensive, and management is very simple. The best feature is content filtering with granular control. Cisco Meraki offers advanced malware protection, including traffic shaping. Another feature we really like is that you can pre-configure devices before they arrive at the installation. It doesn’t work with DMVPN, which is a downside. Another feature that could use some improvement is reporting, which is not real-time. The price can get expensive but if you can afford it, a full-stack Cisco Meraki system does a great job keeping your network secure. Conclusions: If you want a robust but basic firewall, ASA is your best choice. Cisco Meraki is a better choice if you are looking for a next-generation firewall with advanced security features and easy management.

Read full answer

Frank Theilen

IT Adviser/Manager with 51-200 employees

Nov 24, 2021

Meraki is designed for zero deployments and no in-house firewall specialist personnel. Best to secure Networks like remote offices, branches or home offices. Also to protect Internet Access (your computer accesses the internet). Cisco ASA is more of a professional firewall, not only protecting internet access but also providing security for publishing services like web servers, data centers, central services. They will need a specialist to install and support them. Therefore offer much more sophisticated protection features. So you can't really compare these solutions, as they are targeting different markets. You might compare Cisco to Sophos, but again, these are different protection solutions, one for network protection, the other for client protection. If you look only at the firewall part, you miss a lot in the total protection approach with Sophos.

Read full answer

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

21%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

25%

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

23%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

Which is better - Fortinet FortiGate or Cisco ASA Firewall?

One of our favorite things about Fortinet Fortigate is that you can deploy on the cloud or on premises. Fortinet Fort...

See all answers

How does Cisco's ASA firewall compare with the Firepower NGFW?

It is easy to integrate Cisco ASA with other Cisco products and also other NAC solutions. When you understand the Cis...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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

I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Sophos XG vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco Secure Firewall Competitors

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Meraki MX

Compared 10% of the time

Sophos XG vs Meraki MX

Compared 8% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Meraki MX

Compared 6% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Meraki MX

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs Meraki MX

Compared 5% of the time

More Meraki MX Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

July 2024

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Firewall

July 2024

Download Cisco Secure Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Meraki MX

July 2024

Download Meraki MX product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate

Cisco ASA Firewall, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Firewall, Cisco ASA NGFW, Cisco ASA, Adaptive Security Appliance, ASA, Cisco Sourcefire Firewalls, Cisco ASAv, Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall

MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600

Learn More

Fortinet

Cisco

Video not available

Cisco

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate enhances network security, prevents unauthorized access, and offers robust firewall protection. Valued features include advanced threat protection, reliable performance, and a user-friendly interface. It improves efficiency, streamlines processes, and boosts collaboration, providing valuable insights for informed decision-making and growth.

Cisco Secure Firewall stands as a robust and adaptable security solution, catering to organizations of all sizes. It's designed to shield networks from a diverse array of cyber threats, such as ransomware, malware, and phishing attacks. Beyond mere protection, it also offers secure access to corporate resources, beneficial for employees, partners, and customers alike. One of its key functions includes network segmentation, which serves to isolate critical assets and minimize the risk of lateral movement within the network.

The core features of Cisco Secure Firewall are multifaceted:

Advanced threat protection is achieved through a combination of intrusion prevention, malware detection, and URL filtering technologies.
For secure access, the firewall presents multiple options, including VPN, remote access, and single sign-on.
Its network segmentation capability is vital in creating barriers within the network to safeguard critical assets.
The firewall is scalable, effectively serving small businesses to large enterprises.
Management is streamlined through Cisco DNA Center, a central management system.

The benefits of deploying Cisco Secure Firewall are substantial. It significantly reduces the risk of cyberattacks, thereby enhancing the security posture of an organization. This security also translates into increased productivity, as secure access means uninterrupted work. Compliance with industry regulations is another advantage, as secure access and network segmentation align with many regulatory standards. Additionally, it helps in reducing IT costs by automating security tasks and simplifying management processes.

In practical scenarios, Cisco Secure Firewall finds diverse applications. It's instrumental in protecting branch offices from cyberattacks, securing remote access for various stakeholders, safeguarding cloud workloads, and segmenting networks to isolate sensitive areas.

User reviews from PeerSpot reflect an overall positive experience with the Cisco Secure Firewall. Users appreciate its ease of configuration, good management capabilities, robust protection, user-friendly interface, and scalability. However, some areas for improvement include better integration capabilities with other vendors, maturity, control over bandwidth for end-users, and addressing software bugs.

In summary, Cisco Secure Firewall is a comprehensive, versatile, and reliable security solution that effectively meets the security needs of various organizations. It offers a balance of advanced protection, user-friendly management, and scalability, making it a valuable asset in the realm of network security.

Cisco Meraki MX appliances are next-generation firewalls with all the advanced security services needed for today’s IT security. The appliances are ideal for organizations considering a unified threat management (UTM) solution for branch offices, data centers, distributed sites, or campuses. Since Meraki MX is 100% cloud-managed, installation and remote management are simple and zero-touch.

Meraki MX’s hardware and virtual appliances are configurable in Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform, and private cloud support is offered through Cisco NFVIS and Alibaba Cloud.

Organizations of all sizes and across all industries rely on Meraki MX to deliver secure connectivity to hub locations or multi-cloud environments, as well as application quality of experience (QoE) through advanced analytics with machine learning.

Cisco Meraki’s advanced QoE analytics offers:

End-to-end health of web applications at a glance across the LAN, WAN, and application server.

Autonomous machine-learned smart application thresholds applied to identify true anomalies that are based on past behavioral patterns.

Ability to monitor the health of all MX WAN links across an entire organization.

Ability to detail hop-by-hop VoIP performance analysis across all uplinks.

Cisco Meraki’s SD-WAN offers:

The Meraki MX’s SD-WAN is unique in that it can be easily extended to deliver optimized access to resources in public and private cloud environments with virtual MX appliances. Its SD-WAN lowers operational costs and improves the performance of remotely-accessed resources. Users can ensure the availability of the apps and services their employees use most through dynamic path selection, policy-based routing, support for application-layer profiles, and VPN.

Meraki MX offers industry-leading cloud management that has template-based settings which can scale easily from small deployments to tens of thousands of devices. It features an intuitive web-based dashboard for managing mobile devices, united firewalls, switching, and wireless LAN. Users can also benefit from role-based administration, configurable email alerts for a variety of important events, and easily auditable change logs. Meraki MX is capable of producing summary reports with device, user, and application details archived in the cloud.

Meraki MX Key Features

MX has a robust suite of network services in an all-in-one device, which saves you money by eliminating the need for multiple appliances. These services include:

SD-WAN capabilities
SNORT®-based intrusion detection and prevention
Layer 7 fingerprinting
Web caching
Application-based firewalling
Anti-malware
Geo-based firewalling
Content filtering
Site-to-site auto VPN and client VPN
Web search filtering
Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP)
4G cellular failover
Dynamic path selection
Web application health and VoIP health

Reviews from Real Users

Meraki MX stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its easy management and its ability to be accessed remotely. Below is some feedback from PeerSpot users who are currently using Meraki MX as their firewall security solution.

Craig B., a central services engineer at Liberty Technology, writes, “The web console for managing everything keeps everything on Meraki and keeps us from going somewhere else. It is why I think a lot of people like Meraki. Comparing it to SonicWall or even a different Cisco firewall, like traditional ASAs, managing Meraki is a thousand times easier because of fluidity. You don't have to rebuild a table just to change one rule. It's much more readable for a human.”

Edgardo C., an IT director, notes,”By using the VPN, we can connect remotely. We have two offices, and we could connect them through the VPN. We could establish a network between two sites, and that has improved and increased communication and productivity. Our remote site is able to access the server remotely.”

Sample Customers

1. Amazon Web Services 2. Microsoft 3. IBM 4. Cisco 5. Dell 6. HP 7. Oracle 8. Verizon 9. AT&T 10. T-Mobile 11. Sprint 12. Vodafone 13. Orange 14. BT Group 15. Telstra 16. Deutsche Telekom 17. Comcast 18. Time Warner Cable 19. CenturyLink 20. NTT Communications 21. Tata Communications 22. SoftBank 23. China Mobile 24. Singtel 25. Telus 26. Rogers Communications 27. Bell Canada 28. Telkom Indonesia 29. Telkom South Africa 30. Telmex 31. Telia Company 32. Telkom Kenya

There are more than one million Adaptive Security Appliances deployed globally. Top customers include First American Financial Corp., Genzyme, Frankfurt Airport, Hansgrohe SE, Rio Olympics, The French Laundry, Rackspace, and City of Tomorrow.

Hyatt, ONS

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Meraki MX

July 2024

Free Report: Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Meraki MX

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Meraki MX and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.

DOWNLOAD NOW

793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Meraki MX report.

See our list of best Firewalls vendors.

We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.