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Meraki Dashboard vs Riverbed NPM+ comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Riverbed NPM+
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
43rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (29th)
 

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 Riverbed NPM+ is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Meraki Dashboard0.8%
Riverbed NPM+0.5%
Other98.7%
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.
SK
Senior Technical Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Provides deep packet visibility for tracing failed transactions and helps improve enterprise-level monitoring
Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution. Additionally, within Riverbed Portal, there is an Application Map module that could be improved. It can show the application's architecture and connectivity to the network. The applications map feature needs enhancements for better customization since currently, it is quite limited. The enhancements I recommend are not for the entire Riverbed product suite, but specifically for the application map feature within the Portal of Riverbed NPM+. This Portal is one of the dashboard modules and while there is potential for improvement, it must be enhanced significantly to provide better functionality. Currently, you cannot trace by transaction number alone; knowing the source and destination IP is necessary. For instance, if I transfer money and a transaction fails, tracing that transaction ID is not captured in AppResponse. I have raised this concern, and if this feature is implemented, it would greatly benefit banking customers, especially because it is not available with their competitors either.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Meraki Dashboard is a great solution for every company, especially if you want ease and peace of mind throughout and if you are starting out with networking, as it is a great solution to learn."
"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 most valuable feature is knowing the wireless and switch are healthy."
"For small businesses, I would recommend Meraki over pretty much anything else on the market."
"The ability to view the entire project stack, including the camera, features, and routers, which I believe are the most important or relevant components."
"There are some whitelist blacklist capabilities in the MX dashboard, which is very helpful."
"Everything is in a single pane and you can look at your network in one centralized place."
"It's a scalable solution."
"Riverbed NPM+ provides a holistic view of the network and deeper insights into traffic and packet analysis."
"Alluvio Network Performance Management is good for troubleshooting."
 

Cons

"Something that needs to be improved, is the fact that you if you don't renew the subscription license, it stops working. I would also like to see SSL BPM support for anything else."
"Meraki lacks their own software for connecting to the VPN which creates some issues."
"An area for improvement in Meraki Dashboard is licensing management because it's a little complex. Product licensing can be made a little bit easier through license concurrency and a more straightforward approach to applying the license to products and services."
"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."
"The process of getting licensing can be a little bit painful, especially if you're doing it each year."
"In general, how I add firewall rules is not great. It is just a little bit too simple the way it is right now."
"We are at the point now where we are starting to not involve tech support because we are not finding any value in it."
"One area that could use improvement in the Meraki Dashboard is user-friendliness when navigating to port configurations."
"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."
"Currently, you cannot trace by transaction number alone; knowing the source and destination IP is necessary."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You don't have to pay for the dashboard."
"My view is that it's expensive, but it's the best."
"From a pricing perspective, they are still expensive."
"The solution is currently the most expensive on the market."
"The Meraki Dashboard has more competitive pricing."
"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."
"Typically, the license model is for one, three, and five years. They can just be a bit more flexible around it and look into providing an option for 24 months."
"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 tool's pricing is high and I would rate it one out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alluvio Network Performance Management?
The pricing of Riverbed NPM+ is indeed high, particularly as I work with enterprises in the banking sector primarily in India and the Middle East, and I have also interacted with clients in Europe....
What needs improvement with Alluvio Network Performance Management?
Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution. Additionally, within Riverbed Portal, there is an Ap...
What is your primary use case for Alluvio Network Performance Management?
Riverbed NPM+ has many primary use cases, making this NPM solution totally different from other tools like SolarWinds. They have a solution called AppResponse, which is not an agent-based solution ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Alluvio Network Performance Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Meraki Dashboard vs. Riverbed NPM+ and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.