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Meraki Dashboard vs NIKSUN NetVCR comparison

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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

Meraki Dashboard
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NIKSUN NetVCR
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
98th
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 0.8%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NIKSUN NetVCR is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Meraki Dashboard0.8%
NIKSUN NetVCR0.4%
Other98.8%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

NF
IT Network Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Cloud-based management has simplified global Wi-Fi operations and improved daily troubleshooting
What I would like to improve in Meraki Dashboard is the template part, which is really helping me to manage at large scale. Integration with AI or native AI functionality would be interesting depending on the price, how far it goes, and how far it shares the information I have. For the rest, it is quite straightforward. The next tool maybe to be integrated, which I do not know if it exists today within Meraki, is IPAM management for IP address management. I do not know if it is part of the roadmap, but it is something I have to use on a dedicated platform, so integrating this would be interesting as well. Finally, I would rate Meraki Dashboard overall as a 9 out of 10. There are still some missing features, but there are also some considerations. I am familiar with the Chinese situation where there is a dedicated portal for China, so if I need to deploy access points in China, I have to connect to a dedicated portal due to the regulations in that country. However, this is not due to Cisco or company policy.
Himanshu Shah - PeerSpot reviewer
Partner at Opticom Data Products
High performance, quick packet monitoring, and helpful support
The solution could improve by having automatic mitigation. For example, as soon as a problem occurs the solution alarms and mitigates the situation immediately. In a feature release of the solution they should add features related to automation and remediation. Automation would help increase level of security the solution provides.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My customers have been convinced and are using Meraki Dashboard for the past 2.5 years, and they are very happy."
"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 feel Meraki is one of the best at what it does even if it is not fitting to large enterprises."
"It has improved my organization in the way that we've got a much better wireless coverage than we had before, and secondly, we have the visibility of all the users."
"Meraki is easy to use; you don't have to be a network engineer to use it, and all your switches and all your access points are all in one place on the Meraki Dashboard."
"Meraki Dashboard does not require a lot of maintenance. Cisco tells communicates through the Meraki Dashboard web client, it will automatically send updates to the equipment. They will send you an email on what day the updates will take place. If you want to proceed, you can click on accept, or you can decline them and schedule the updates at another time."
"Everything is in a single pane and you can look at your network in one centralized place."
"What I love most about the Meraki Dashboard are its user-friendly features."
"The unique selling point of NIKSUN is its ability to scale and its reporting capabilities. NIKSUN captures the packets at a very high speed, from one GB to 160 Gbps also. It offers report granularity in nanoseconds."
"NIKSUN provides you with the why, what, when and where type of answers to all your network problems."
"The most valuable features of NIKSUN NetVCR are its performance and forensic capabilities. Additionally, the information that the solution provides is highly detailed and useful. When dealing with network traffic packets can be sent at a high speed causing some security issues, but this solution is able to rapidly monitor the packets providing security."
 

Cons

"The biggest problem is the absence of a VPN client like AnyConnect with the device."
"We would like to be able to test the health of WAN connections."
"They could offer API functionality for Meraki Dashboard. It will help us develop software immediately using available solutions."
"When users are trying to roam from one location to another location, geographical tracking would be helpful."
"In general, how I add firewall rules is not great. It is just a little bit too simple the way it is right now."
"Meraki lacks their own software for connecting to the VPN which creates some issues."
"While the visibility in Meraki Dashboard is good, the solution is too heavy and complex."
"Lacks an alert notification when there are IP or DNS issues."
"NIKSUN is a passive solution. It provides you with you data, alerts, reports and the root cause of issues. However, it requires a person to make use of this functionality. If an event is happening and nobody attends to it, the effects of the event could be severe."
"The solution could improve by having automatic mitigation. For example, as soon as a problem occurs the solution alarms and mitigates the situation immediately."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for a small setup is only a few hundred dollars a year. The fee is subscription-based."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Licensing is around under 1000 pounds. The licensing is either one year, three years, five years or ten years and during the licensing, we can choose to renew it per year or per every three years. We've got a license for three years. It's about 160 or about 200 pounds each."
"My view is that it's expensive, but it's the best."
"You don't have to pay for the dashboard."
"From a pricing perspective, they are still expensive."
"Meraki Dashboard is a utility and portal that's part of the Meraki solution."
"The pricing of the tool is relatively high compared to other solutions. It comes with a premium that exceeds that of its competitors by approximately 25 percent."
"The price of the solution is high. There is an annual license costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise34
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki Dashboard?
Regarding their pricing, the company I work for, Akkodis, was acquired by Adecco in 2022, so I am using the same technologies and I am somehow on the contract regarding Meraki purchase and so on. P...
What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?
The main aspect I would like to see improved in Meraki Dashboard is the dependency on cloud connectivity for centralized management. If the primary Internet or ISP connection goes down, access to t...
What is your primary use case for Meraki Dashboard?
We have deployed the Meraki Dashboard for centralized management and monitoring of all devices, appliances, and sensors across two shopping malls. The shopping malls are connected across different ...
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Also Known As

No data available
NetVCR
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe
Visa, FedEx, CitiGroup, IDC
Find out what your peers are saying about Meraki Dashboard vs. NIKSUN NetVCR and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.