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DX Performance Management vs Meraki Dashboard comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

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

DX Performance Management
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
43rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure Capacity Planning (1st), DX NetOps (2nd)
Meraki Dashboard
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of DX Performance Management is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 0.7%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Meraki Dashboard0.7%
DX Performance Management0.7%
Other98.6%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1810893 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Operations Specialist at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Flexibility and detailed performance stats enable effective network monitoring
Spectrum is very good at monitoring all network faults and configurations. It enables me to take action based on network issues. The Performance Management provides detailed network performance stats, including CPU, memory, and interface bandwidth. Additionally, Spectrum is flexible and allows me to organize and treat devices uniquely without impacting other devices.
MURALI NIDAMANURI - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Dashboard provides comprehensive network security and management capabilities
I don't have specific handy names. Meraki Dashboard uses multiple functions where we can configure SSIDs, firewall policies, DHCP, multiple VLANs and DHCP configurations, VLAN configurations, access control policies, MAC binding, client access based on MAC authentication and certificate-based authentication. We have configured SSO for Windows Active Directory by configuring the RADIUS services. We have implemented many customer requirements in Meraki Dashboard. With the detailed visibility feature of Meraki Dashboard, I get connected clients information, including how much data each client downloaded and what applications they accessed. I can obtain detailed data including ISP links level monitoring and speed. I can perform speed tests, generate analytics reports, convert to Excel based on each user for each department, create dashboards, monitor and limit bandwidths, and restrict specific URLs. The advanced security configuration in Meraki Dashboard is useful for network security. Substantial security can be achieved within Meraki Dashboard itself, eliminating the need for additional firewalls to protect your network. You can configure WAN monitoring, users' ACLs, URL filtering, web filtering, and department-wise access configuration for specific client applications. It's completely cloud-managed, and in a simplified way, you don't need to visit any physical infrastructure to monitor activities. Apart from access points, everything is in the cloud. We have monitored IoT solutions, CCTV monitoring, and can detect and control intrusions. When people connect IoT devices to your network, Meraki Dashboard can detect what device it is and control those access controls, even with different operating systems.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think the product has matured a lot, and I’m impressed with CA when I hear about new features."
"Mainly as an MSP configuration, the multi-tenant model helps us to segment the customer and users, as well as providing our operation the capability to oversee all tenants."
"I can get it to run a report showing, for instance, what root drives are in the critical range in terms of being full, like 90 percent full, and disseminate that information to the other areas of the organization."
"There is another component of the tool called Network Flow Analysis. It gives us the ability to troubleshoot issues which do not appear right away."
"The integration with NetFlow, the NFA solution, so that we can have our flow forensics paired with the SNMP polling performance metrics on the same page."
"You can have thousands of devices inside and hundreds of thousands of interphases without a problem."
"​When devices are having performance issues, it proactively build dashboards which allow us to go and do health checks, and resolve problems before they become an issue.​"
"It gave us one location, one place to do all of group administration, and to build dashboards, and device administration, inventory counts... it really reduced our overall administrative overhead."
"Meraki Dashboard has everything together that legacy Cisco did not, with a simple interface that is easy to use and has made our expansions and acquisitions pretty easy."
"The overall product rating is ten out of ten."
"I like that Meraki Dashboard is a user-friendly product."
"The most valuable feature is ease of use."
"A specific outcome that improved after I started using Meraki Dashboard is our response time, which greatly improved, and our end customers are very happy."
"Meraki Dashboard offers an exceptional centralized management solution that allows easy updates and monitoring of various network features, including bandwidth usage and content filtering."
"What I found most valuable in the Meraki Dashboard is straight monitoring of the different devices, as well as the ability to easily set up VPNs, for example, both Meraki client VPNs and non-Meraki VPNs for different organizations that work with my company. I also like that the tool is a really good firewall."
"We can remotely monitor clients' networks through Meraki Dashboard, dramatically reducing the on-site visits required."
 

Cons

"Spectrum's topology view sometimes does not rebuild automatically when a device is shut down and reconnected. It requires manual discovery and rebuilding of the topology, which I hope can be improved."
"This tool gathers so much data, which makes it hard to convert over. To upgrade it, you really need the solution backed up. That is the issue that we are facing right now."
"DX Performance Management should increase high availability. If one of my two data centers goes offline and the other is operational, I need a seamless transition from the primary to the secondary data center. It's crucial to maintain consistent monitoring of the devices during this transition. Therefore, I require continuous, 24/7 monitoring of my system using this tool."
"The solution could improve the database model. It is also not very good because they have a lot of interconnections with other data sources, such as NFA and VNA."
"CA PM can be complex to build and configure. Creating the folders / groups / sites required establishing many rule sets."
"It needs role-based administration."
"Install is done as root, which is a security no-no, and the database IO requirements were not stated correctly, which lead to a year of instability."
"It could be a little easier to integrate new metrics."
"They could offer API functionality for Meraki Dashboard. It will help us develop software immediately using available solutions."
"The downside to the simplicity is that you can't get as granular as you could with the Cisco APs."
"The solution has a limited routing table and needs improvement by increasing the numbers as well as providing a summarization for the table."
"The initial setup is complex and can be made more straightforward."
"Meraki Dashboard could improve integration with non-Cisco platforms."
"I appreciate the security that has been provided by Meraki, but they specifically require port 80 which is highly vulnerable towards Meraki domain itself, so I would like to remove it."
"More integration would be an improvement."
"For instance, you should be able to see if something has been blocked by a firewall rule by looking at a live log of traffic moving through the device. It helps you troubleshoot issues and understand if your rules are working. You need to ensure the firewall is blocking the right things. That's unavailable in the Meraki Dashboard. You have to send the logs to a log server. We use SolarWinds locally, but it's not natively built into Meraki. We're also using Cisco ISA and another tool called Smoothwall."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We were looking at other vendors in the marketplace for NetFlow, and CA just beat everybody else in price, cost, and the size to implement. ​"
"We purchase a license to use the solution every three years and we have multiple contracts. They have been increasing the price annually. We have a baseline for three years and then we need to pay the difference from the baseline, and we are in the process of negotiating a new price for all the licenses we need. The price overall is affordable."
"The tool's pricing is based on the number of network devices."
"They should provide more scalable licensing for the product."
"I like the licensing model because it's device-based."
"Do your homework and know how many devices you will be managing out of the gate. Be sure to project what your growth will be each year."
"Meraki Dashboard's pricing is reasonable. It is sold yearly, typically for one, three, or five years. I rate its pricing a five out of ten."
"The pricing for a small setup is only a few hundred dollars a year. The fee is subscription-based."
"It is said to be expensive."
"Licensing for Meraki Dashboard is paid every year, and it's on a per-device model that costs roughly $300 to $400 per device, but that comes with full support and troubleshooting, etc. Compared to similar products, Meraki Dashboard is quite high-end, but the costs you pay are all-in."
"The Meraki Dashboard has more competitive pricing."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"I’m not sure of the exact cost, however, it’s my understanding the Meraki WiFi is around $800. That’s for a three-year license. It’s about $150 a year."
"The licensing fees are $180 USD, per AP, for three years."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
18%
Construction Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with DX Performance Management?
Spectrum's topology view sometimes does not rebuild automatically when a device is shut down and reconnected. It requires manual discovery and rebuilding of the topology, which I hope can be improved.
What is your primary use case for DX Performance Management?
I have used Spectrum for monitoring all network faults, configurations, and troubleshooting network issues. It provides network performance stats, such as CPU, memory, and interface bandwidth detai...
What advice do you have for others considering DX Performance Management?
I would recommend this solution based on its functionality, flexibility, customizability, and ease of use. Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. I am just a customer and not a par...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki Dashboard?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that it is what it is. It is pricey and sometimes surprising. Of course, with Cisco, you pay for the premium because it is a premium produc...
What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?
I think Meraki Dashboard can be improved with a couple of additional features, such as the ability to download analytics into a spreadsheet, which is not currently available, the ability to configu...
What is your primary use case for Meraki Dashboard?
The main use case for Meraki Dashboard is to manage the Meraki Dashboard ecosystem, and the main reason is the ease of use.
 

Also Known As

CA Performance Management
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Jack Henry & Assoc, Target, CenturyLink, Bell Canada, BrightHouse Networks, Telus, Unisys, Verizon, Southern California Edison, GEICO, Fidelity Investments, Wells Fargo, American Family Insurance Group, Deutsche Telekom AG 
Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe
Find out what your peers are saying about DX Performance Management vs. Meraki Dashboard and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
910,005 professionals have used our research since 2012.