We performed a comparison between Meraki MX and SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Users consider Meraki MX devices to be part of a comprehensive next-generation firewall solution with all the advanced security services required for today’s IT marketplace. They say it is also a robust dynamic Unified Threat Management (UTM) tool. Meraki MX offers zero-touch installation, is cloud-based, and can seamlessly integrate with most of today’s popular platforms. Many users feel SonicWall TZ can be bulky and slow and is lacking some key features.
"I only deal with it from a security analyst's point of view. I don't really get into the features of the actual FortiGate. From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."
"It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."
"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."
"Their proxy-based inspection is responsive and secure."
"The pricing is great and very reasonable."
"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."
"Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."
"The stability of the solution is excellent, as it is with other Fortinet products."
"The dashboard is very intuitive and easy to understand."
"Both the scalability and the scalability are great with Meraki MX."
"MX is easy to manage, configure and install."
"The solution is easy to set up."
"The features we have found most valuable are the firewall and the monitoring tools."
"In a week, we can make new policy and view what all our users did."
"The product's initial setup phase is very easy."
"Site to Site VPN: The device can establish a VPN connection to multiple sites in a mesh environment in seconds, and without complex VPN knowledge."
"The most valuable feature of SonicWall TZ is the double authentication, where it asks for one password and again asks for a four-digit code, which changes every 30 seconds."
"Good VPN connection."
"We like the unified threat management for defense-in-depth. We can terminate our site-to-site and remote access VPNs with it."
"The most valuable features are security and technical support."
"It is very user-friendly, and there is no problem in using its interface."
"The product is easy to deploy."
"It lets me monitor in live time if someone is 'hogging' bandwidth."
"Access restriction and IP whitelisting are the most valuable features."
"Due to its higher cost, Fortinet FortiGate can lead to increased operational expenses."
"If they could extend their fabric towards other vendor environments for integration, that would be great."
"Currently, without the additional reporting module, we only have access to basic reporting."
"Usually, we sell the bundle with the UTM or threat management piece with IPS, IDS. Other providers, such as Palo Alto, are ahead in terms of safe functionality. So, for me, delivering truly safe service is probably something that still needs to be improved."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"There are SD-WAN network monitoring, SD-WAN features, Industrial Databases, Internet of Things, Detection, etc., however, we do have not licenses for those features. We thought that if you bought a product, you should have all of the features it offers. Why should you need to make so many extra purchases to enable features? They should have one price for the entire offering."
"The reports are very basic."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"Expensive licensing and firewall stops immediately working if the license is not renewed at expiration date."
"We had minor issues with Meraki MX. We had a couple of RMAs, so that could be an area for improvement, but in terms of how the RMAs went, the turnaround time and getting those back into redeployment were quick. Another area for improvement in Meraki MX is that when you're scaling for multiple locations, you need to use the same model, but the model you'd need is only available for a short time. The specific model you require could be out of stock, or Meraki isn't making that model anymore, so Meraki should improve that."
"We can’t access GUI management and CLI opening features when the Internet is unavailable."
"Pricing is an area where the solution lacks since it is an expensive tool."
"More detail needed for configuration of the VPN."
"In the next release, because the security is pretty basic, I think they could include additional security features."
"Meraki tech support staff have a lot more visibility into your network than you do, which is frustrating at times. I understand the approach is to keep the dashboard easier to understand. This will frustrate more advanced users at times."
"It would be nice to get detailed logging information without third-party software."
"We would like to improve the rules configuration in SonicWall TZ. Sometimes the rules don't work."
"There is still room for improvement, and it's not advisable even if the organization has grown."
"It could be made more user friendly."
"We have experienced some issues with SonicWall TZ and they are lacking some advanced features other vendors have."
"User interface could be improved."
"Although the pricing is good, it could always be lower. If we get to pay less, we're happier."
"It needs more robust self-help documentation along with examples and things to watch out for."
"FortiGate has a client DNS in the firewall, but SonicWall doesn't have that. To create or configure a site-to-site VPN tunnel, we have to give a DNS name. Currently, we have to get the DNS name from a third party and then include it in SonicWall, whereas FortiGate has its own client DNS, so it provides a DNS name, and it does not require a third party. There should be a graphical option to view the network utilization and bandwidth usage."
Meraki MX is ranked 2nd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 57 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Meraki MX is rated 8.2, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Meraki MX writes "Cost-effective, simplified, easy to manage, and reliable with advanced security features and granular visibility". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Meraki MX is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense and SonicWall NSa, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, SonicWall NSa, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Meraki MX vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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