Meraki Dashboard vs Nmap comparison

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Meraki Dashboard

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Nmap and Meraki Dashboard operate in the network management and security domain. While Nmap offers attractive pricing and basic support, Meraki Dashboard's extensive features provide more value despite its higher cost.

Features: Nmap features network exploration, security auditing, and diagnostics tailored for system administrators focused on network discovery. Meraki Dashboard offers real-time monitoring, network insights, and advanced security controls, appealing to businesses needing comprehensive network management.

Room for Improvement: Nmap could enhance its user interface, improve automation capabilities, and expand its customer support options. Meraki Dashboard could benefit from reducing setup complexity, enhancing customization features, and offering more competitive pricing options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nmap requires manual deployment needing technical expertise. Meraki Dashboard provides a cloud-based solution, simplifying installation and updates, with extensive customer service aiding efficient problem-solving.

Pricing and ROI: Nmap offers free installation leading to lower initial costs, attractive to budget-conscious buyers but may require investment in expertise. Meraki Dashboard, although with a higher setup cost, delivers high ROI through improved network management and reduced operational issues.

To learn more, read our detailed Meraki Dashboard vs. Nmap Report (Updated: November 2025).

Meraki Dashboard vs. Nmap

November 2025

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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

Meraki Dashboard

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

17th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Nmap

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 1.0%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nmap is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Nmap	0.6%
Meraki Dashboard	1.0%
Other	98.4%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

MURALI NIDAMANURI

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.

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AntoSebastin

Cyber Security Consultant - APAC at Logon Software

Scans the network and identifies vulnerabilities on each machine

Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to scan our network and identify devices that aren't connected properly. This helps us detect any issues related to the operating systems of these devices. The tool's most valuable feature is its vulnerability scanning. It allows us to scan a specific range of IP addresses and discover devices within that range. This makes it easy to identify devices and view their details. Port scanning is crucial for network management tasks. It helps us identify vulnerabilities by finding open ports that may be unused or misconfigured. This tool makes it easy to detect such issues. The OS detection feature is great. Unlike other tools, Nmap provides accurate information about asset vulnerabilities, helping us easily detect and address them. Using Nmap provides value to the company, especially during compliance audits. It helps generate reports on assets, updates on workstations, and insights into network activities and potential attacks. Additionally, Nmap detects vulnerabilities and provides port details, allowing us to close unused ports on the client machines.

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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

"Everything is in a single pane and you can look at your network in one centralized place."

"The most valuable feature is ease of use."

"The most valuable features are the ease of use and a single-pane-of-glass that allows us to identify issues across the entire network from one dashboard."

"Meraki Dashboard offers an exceptional centralized management solution that allows easy updates and monitoring of various network features, including bandwidth usage and content filtering."

"Some of the features I have found valuable are the ease of access, simple configuration, and monitoring."

"I like that Meraki Dashboard is a user-friendly product."

"We greatly utilize the network because we can plug it into the DNS, VPN, or equipment. It's very good. Meraki Dashboard enhances wireless network management. We appreciate its flexibility, as it allows for easy suite configuration. We can handle everything on there when there's a policy or any other requirement."

"The initial setup process is quite simple."

More Meraki Dashboard pros

"The solution detects the operating systems, which makes testing the software much easier before making the payload."

"The best feature of Nmap is that it lets me see useful information about each endpoint in my entire network environment. For example, I can see every single connection of the network as well as each and every port."

"The most important function, according to me, is the capability to use some arguments in the scanning. The solution's capability to go figure and do a deep dive, discovering information on specific aspects."

"Nmap is easy to use. It's a command-line interface, and the output is quite good."

"It is a very user-friendly product."

"Nmap is mostly helpful during compliance checks. We run the scanner to see how many devices are on our network and find vulnerabilities in those that aren't compliant. We also use it monthly to scan our network and identify devices that aren't connected properly. This helps us detect any issues related to the operating systems of these devices."

"From a functionality standpoint, it's robust and straightforward to comprehend."

"The real-time reporting feature of Nmap is particularly valuable. It generates detailed reports on the source and destination IP addresses, the protocols used, and the types of traffic."

More Nmap pros

Cons

"When users are trying to roam from one location to another location, geographical tracking would be helpful."

"It would be nicer if the dashboard was lighter."

"Lacks an alert notification when there are IP or DNS issues."

"There is a bit of a problem when you try to log in and you don't have a fixed IP address. If you're granting access, you need to log in by using the IP address. If your administrator's IP address is not a fixed IP address and it has changed, you might need to update the changed IP address in the interface. For this, you need to log in to the interface to update the IP address. This issue might not have so much to do with Meraki interface."

"In general, how I add firewall rules is not great."

"The pricing for this solution needs to be improved."

"Third-party switches do not necessarily integrate easily with the system and this could be improved to allow for better adaptation."

"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."

More Meraki Dashboard cons

"Customization is not very user-friendly in Nmap."

"They should deliver Playtech's username and password."

"Nmap needs to improve its scanning speed."

"The price is high and could be cheaper."

"The solution's initial setup could be better."

"Nmap major operates through the CLI; there's no GUI component, and that's where the challenge is."

"The solution should increase the number of features under a free license."

"There is room for improvement in the design, the GUI. It looks a bit odd. Maybe Nmap should improve it or add more widgets to make it more attractive, but the basic functionality is good and provides what we need."

More Nmap cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is currently the most expensive on the market."

"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 Meraki Dashboard is not expensive because knowing that it is a cloud-based solution has its benefits."

"My view is that it's expensive, but it's the best."

"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."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"The licensing fees are $180 USD, per AP, for three years."

"The pricing for a small setup is only a few hundred dollars a year. The fee is subscription-based."

More Meraki Dashboard pricing and cost advice

"It's an open-source product, and I haven't seen any premiums. Options are available for those who purchase, but for my use case, everything I need is available in the community and forums."

"The solution is free of cost, but there are specific services that we have to buy."

"Nmap is open source software, which suits us well because we are a manufacturing company and not an IT company, for example. If we were an IT company, we would probably need to pay for extra support or instead go for another software solution. But as it is, we don't have any need for high-end troubleshooting tools."

"I am using the standard free version of Nmap."

"I am using the free version of Nmap."

"Nmap is an open-source and free product."

"Nmap is an open-source product. You don't need a license to install it."

"It's an open-source solution. Commerically, only the support service is available."

More Nmap pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

14%

Retailer

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	25

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Meraki Dashboard?

We greatly utilize the network because we can plug it into the DNS, VPN, or equipment. It's very good. Meraki Dashboard enhances wireless network management. We appreciate its flexibility, as it al...

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

The cost of the Meraki solution is high, which may not be affordable for smaller companies, especially in developing countries.

What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?

Improving the AI capabilities would be beneficial as the machine should learn more extensively. The future is AI-driven. Network availability is crucial based on machine understanding, so the machi...

What do you like most about Nmap?

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nmap?

I am using the free version of Nmap.

What is your primary use case for Nmap?

Nmap is used for network scanning to map the network, identify devices, and assess their status. It helps determine open ports and services running on a particular endpoint or server within an ente...

Cisco DNA Center vs Meraki Dashboard

Comparisons

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Compared 8% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs Meraki Dashboard

Compared 5% of the time

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Zabbix vs Nmap

Compared 12% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Nmap

Compared 9% of the time

LiveAction LiveNX vs Nmap

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Nmap

Compared 8% of the time

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Nmap

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

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Meraki Dashboard

October 2025

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October 2025

Overview

Meraki Dashboard is a comprehensive cloud-based platform that offers centralized management and control for all Meraki networking and security products. It provides a user-friendly interface, allowing administrators to easily monitor and configure their network infrastructure from anywhere. With real-time visibility, troubleshooting becomes effortless, ensuring optimal performance and minimizing downtime.

The intuitive dashboard offers a holistic view of the network, enabling quick identification of potential issues and proactive measures. It simplifies network deployment and scaling, with zero-touch provisioning and automatic firmware updates. The robust security features include advanced threat protection, content filtering, and VPN connectivity.

Meraki Dashboard also offers powerful analytics and reporting capabilities, providing valuable insights into network usage, application performance, and user behavior. With its seamless integration and scalability,

Meraki Dashboard is the ideal solution for organizations of all sizes, ensuring efficient network management and enhanced productivity.

Cisco

Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap runs on all major computer operating systems, and official binary packages are available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. In addition to the classic command-line Nmap executable, the Nmap suite includes an advanced GUI and results viewer (Zenmap), a flexible data transfer, redirection, and debugging tool (Ncat), a utility for comparing scan results (Ndiff), and a packet generation and response analysis tool (Nping).

Sample Customers

Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe

Lockheed Martin, Eastern Bank Boston, Perspecta, Harris Corporation, Discovery Communication