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Meraki Dashboard vs Viavi Observer Platform comparison

 

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
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Viavi Observer Platform
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
91st
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 0.7%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Viavi Observer Platform is 0.3%, 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 Dashboard0.7%
Viavi Observer Platform0.3%
Other99.0%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

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.
JeroenDubbelman - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Bitrate
The product is extremely valuable and provides a lot of functionalities and visibility to organizations
The score-based application performance ratings help the network team. Often, customers have a siloed environment for security, applications, and servers. The network team is always asked to do troubleshooting. Being able to know how well an application worked in the past and what's happening today is really helpful. If someone has a complaint and the network team says that the problem is not on their side, they must be able to demonstrate it accurately. The network team is often given the least budget and the least number of employees. So, they must be able to troubleshoot and pinpoint problems as fast as possible. If it’s a network issue, they must fix it. However, if it is a cloud problem, an ISP problem, or a problem within the server or application environment, they must be able to demonstrate it clearly. It is the real benefit they get from the solution. Some of our customers are financial institutions. They use the tool for traffic accounting, especially when they get charged by ISPs or carriers for the amount of traffic they are using. In South Africa, we have banks that pay the service providers to allow customers to use their banking apps for free. The bank pays for it, not the customers. So, they need to compare to ensure they are paying for what has been used. Viavi enables them to do that. It is pretty much the best there is in the world. There is nothing to beat it. The product is extremely valuable and provides a lot of functionalities. It's really impressive.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Some of the features I have valuable are ease of access, simple configuration, and monitoring."
"Some of the features I have found valuable are the ease of access, simple configuration, and monitoring."
"I like that there is great visibility on the dashboard and you immediately see when something is going down."
"The ability to view the entire project stack, including the camera, features, and routers, which I believe are the most important or relevant components."
"The most valuable feature is knowing the wireless and switch are healthy."
"The solution scales well."
"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."
"This product saves me time and I am very happy using it."
"The score-based application performance ratings help the network team."
 

Cons

"What needs improvement in Meraki Dashboard is its configuration."
"What needs improvement in Meraki Dashboard is its configuration. It'll also be better if the tool has more functionality, and that is what I'd like to see in its next release."
"The initial setup is complex and can be made more straightforward."
"As far as scalability, the product is not very scalable. The product will only be fit to cover small to medium businesses and Cisco is not likely to improve on that scalability as they have other products in line for the larger market."
"Not a lot of training is available."
"It is not appropriate for large, enterprise businesses."
"Something that needs to be improved, is the fact that you if you don't renew the subscription license, it stops working."
"There needs to be a better way of identifying some hardware. For example, there is some hardware where only the mask address is available - not the full name."
"The product must start using a bit more machine learning and AI, especially for security."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for a small setup is only a few hundred dollars a year. The fee is subscription-based."
"Meraki Dashboard is a utility and portal that's part of the Meraki solution."
"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."
"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."
"The price of Meraki Dashboard is not expensive because knowing that it is a cloud-based solution has its benefits."
"You don't have to pay for the dashboard."
"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."
"It is said to be expensive."
"The tool is very pricey."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise26
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?
Regarding Meraki Dashboard, I would suggest improvements to Cisco ISE integration. I have used Cisco ISE for port security and I never liked the GUI because it is difficult. If I need to check the ...
What is your primary use case for Meraki Dashboard?
My main use case for Meraki Dashboard is as a NOC engineer for the MSP, where we have three sites. We add all the sites to Meraki Dashboard for live monitoring. I am the one who uses LogicMonitor, ...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

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