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Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Meraki SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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

Cradlepoint NetCloud
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
6th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (15th), WAN Edge (16th)
Meraki SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Software Defined Networking (SDN) category, the mindshare of Cradlepoint NetCloud is 5.5%, down from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki SD-WAN is 23.2%, down from 25.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
 

Featured Reviews

Robert-Gardner - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy to setup solution, but it is missing useful configuration options
I use this solution to manage Cradlepoint wireless routers It lets us know whether it is online or not, and lets us do a speed test to see how quick the speed is. These are valuable features. They should change some of the configuration settings to enable it to act more as an SD-WAN box to view…
Martyn Walker - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables productivity in terms of users and has ease of management
Scalability could be improved. Yes, you can add more than 300 or 400 sites onto it, but because it's not a true SD-WAN and, effectively, it's just a Multi-VRF, it's all hub and spoke at that point. That's the nature of the design, but that's what keeps it simple to administer. So, it's a trade off.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I rate the overall solution as ten out of ten."
"Cradlepoint NetCloud is very stable."
"Cradlepoint provides real value in its focus on wireless WAN connectivity."
"It is easy to set up and requires a single administrator to maintain it."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the automatic failover."
"The solution has many features available."
"The solution is pretty easy to configure."
"The most valuable feature for me is the security functionality."
"The most valuable features of this solution are load balancing and the security possibilities you have."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of setting up Meraki SD-WAN."
"Meraki SD-WAN is a scalable solution because changes are being made to the solution, enabling it to work in different environments."
"If there are multiple network connectivities in an organization, Meraki creates an AutoVPN. It creates a channel automatically."
"The dashboard is the solution's most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"It is missing important settings options."
"The performance of group-based clouds should be enhanced."
"Cradlepoint's portfolio is lacking budget-friendly options."
"There are areas for improvement, particularly at the lower end of the medium enterprise market."
"In our situation, the initial setup was complex."
"When there is an issue, I find it difficult to figure out what is going wrong because the logs do not provide as much information as solutions from HP."
"The product could be improved by being made more simple to use. We had some issues integrating our MPLS with Meraki SD-WAN."
"The adoption of endpoint services or endpoint security should be developed in future releases."
"You need to have internet access to configure the solution. You cannot do it locally, there should be a local option."
"Some systems use some applications with the wrong data application. It bypasses the network, and you need to block that application on Meraki. We first try to put in passwords to do it and the network is not really safe. It's not 100%, the network can be bypassed."
"Some of the on-premise security features of Meraki SD-WAN are on the cloud and some of my customers do not want to use the cloud. They should have on-premise security features for those that do not want to use the cloud."
"They stopped doing WAN optimization as a feature set, which is lacking. They need to relook at that and consider WAN optimization as an option."
"Meraki offers the client basic security, it is not the same as what FortiGate is offering."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cradlepoint's prices are on par with similar solutions."
"Yearly licenses are available."
"The annual cost is less than $200,000 yet more than $150,000.00."
"like everything else, it's negotiable."
"From the perspective of the customer, the price is not terribly cost-effective."
"Pricing is a significant concern for me. Amongst all the firewall brands, Cisco is one of the most expensive options. Despite its reputation and security features, many customers opt for other brands, such as SonicWall because of their lower prices. These other brands offer similar features to Cisco but at a lower cost. Cisco's pricing is something that could be improved to attract more customers. The brand has a good reputation, but when it comes to budgeting and pricing, it is not always the first choice."
"The solution offers yearly licenses and product lines or prices are readily available on their website."
"The tool offers term licenses. You have the same term licensing model available for all of your equipment, which is good for management."
"Any license you buy until January 2021 gets you an extra year for that purchase."
"Regarding pricing, Meraki SD-WAN is quite competitive, especially compared to solutions like Fortinet. However, it's essential to consider that Meraki requires cloud orchestration, which adds to the overall cost. Overall, it's one of the most competitive solutions from Cisco for SD-WAN."
"Our clients pay Meraki an annual licensing fee and the pricing is not too bad when compared to other products in the Cisco portfolio."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Retailer
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cradlepoint NetCloud?
It is easy to set up and requires a single administrator to maintain it.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cradlepoint NetCloud?
Cradlepoint's pricing is viewed as market competitive, offering good value for the money invested. While some customers are price sensitive, others recognize the efficiency and smooth operation as ...
What needs improvement with Cradlepoint NetCloud?
There are areas for improvement, particularly at the lower end of the medium enterprise market. Cradlepoint's portfolio is lacking budget-friendly options. The company realizes that there's a need ...
What do you like most about Meraki SD-WAN?
The auto VPN feature is important because it automates many tasks, making things simpler and faster. It helps with setting up devices and changing configurations without manual effort.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki SD-WAN?
The price is a little bit higher than local vendors, for example, Huawei ZTE or H3C. However, some customers require the best quality and performance, thus needing solutions and products from Cisco.
What needs improvement with Meraki SD-WAN?
They have to ask us many questions about configurations. It could be improved with some automation to trigger, for example, telemetry data, so we can determine the state of the deployment as of day...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of San Antonio, Statue Cruises, Tour Dubai, St. David's Foundation, JBT, DSC Dredge
École Jeannine Manuel
Find out what your peers are saying about Cradlepoint NetCloud vs. Meraki SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.