Cisco Meraki MX vs Zscaler Internet Access comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Cisco and Zscaler are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 95% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

Cisco Meraki MX

Read 87 Cisco Meraki MX reviews

15,470 Views
14,542 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Zscaler Internet Access

Read 60 Zscaler Internet Access reviews

20,232 Views
13,151 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Cisco Meraki MX

Zscaler Internet Access

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Meraki MX and Zscaler Internet Access based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

October 2026

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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:

ROI

Sentiment score

4.9

Cisco Meraki MX offers long-term cost-effectiveness through operational savings, improved efficiency, and reduced equipment and training expenses.

Sentiment score

5.8

Zscaler Internet Access delivers cost savings, improved security, and productivity with ROI seen in as little as three months.

I have seen a return on investment with Cisco Meraki MX because of the time saved through cloud management.

Nader Elmansi

Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc

You can eliminate some positions because it manages itself.

Lester Perrin

Enterprise Networking Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

It greatly helps out when I am moving away from the expensive MPLS circuits or MPLS hardware.

JasminPatel

Senior Manager Networking at David Yurman

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Meraki MX report

Reduced risk from web-based threats.

Nikhil Kalyankar

Soc Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The managed service aspect of Zscaler Internet Access has allowed for reduced staffing costs, resulting in a saving of approximately 20-25% compared to prior expenses.

Tejas Jain

Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Zscaler Internet Access report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

8.2

Cisco Meraki MX customer support is praised for responsiveness and effectiveness, despite occasional issues with Level 1 support.

Sentiment score

6.6

Zscaler Internet Access users rate support highly for skill and quick resolution, despite occasional communication issues and staff inexperience.

The support is excellent, earning a rating of ten out of ten.

GireeshRamamurthy

Principal Consultant at Epitome Infotech Solutions (P) Ltd

Every time I got a hold of someone, I was always able to resolve my issues.

ChrisYankajtis

Systems Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

When we raise a ticket with Meraki MX, they instantly become available to support us for configurations or troubleshooting.

MURALI NIDAMANURI

Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Meraki MX report

I would rate customer support at nine out of ten as they have provided responsive and knowledgeable assistance.

Nikhil Kalyankar

Soc Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The technical support for Zscaler Internet Access is rated around seven out of ten due to some response time issues and the engagement model.

Tejas Jain

Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Zscaler Internet Access customer service is really very good.

Ferdi Haider

Product Owner at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Zscaler Internet Access report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.6

Cisco Meraki MX is scalable for SMEs with easy deployment but may face limitations in high-bandwidth or large-scale scenarios.

Sentiment score

7.3

Zscaler Internet Access provides scalable, cloud-native solutions, though some regions may need local appliances due to performance issues.

When you have hundreds of thousands of people it is very difficult to scale in Meraki.

MURALI NIDAMANURI

Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The scalability of Cisco Meraki MX is rated 10 out of 10; you can scale up and scale down with no effort.

Nader Elmansi

Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc

Cisco Meraki MX scales with my growing needs for my organization very well because they are easy to deploy.

reviewer2847897

Network Engineer at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Meraki MX report

With the pricing structure that they currently have, it is only for big customers.

Ferdi Haider

Product Owner at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

I find Zscaler Internet Access to be highly scalable, which was one of the reasons for choosing it.

Pawel Gawronski

Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees

Zscaler Internet Access is scalable and has points of presence across the globe to ensure low latency and reliable connections.

Tejas Jain

Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Zscaler Internet Access report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.2

Cisco Meraki MX is considered stable with high ratings, minor issues, and generally meets expectations despite some VPN concerns.

Sentiment score

7.4

Zscaler Internet Access is stable with high performance, minimal issues, swift outage resolutions, and effective global failover mechanisms.

There have been no outages, no stability issues, and we have not found any vulnerabilities during security audits.

Sanjay Gaiswal

Technical Presales at Vcom Technologies

I have had zero downtime at all with Cisco Meraki MX.

Lester Perrin

Enterprise Networking Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

I assess the stability and the reliability of Cisco Meraki MX as good, and I have experienced no downtime, crashes, or performance issues.

reviewer2847897

Network Engineer at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Meraki MX report

Zscaler Internet Access is stable and capable of building resilient architectures.

Tejas Jain

Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

I have not faced any major outages or downtime with Zscaler Internet Access; it is stable in our environment.

Nikhil Kalyankar

Soc Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Zscaler Internet Access is very stable, and I would rate its stability as nine out of ten.

Pawel Gawronski

Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Zscaler Internet Access report

Room For Improvement

Cisco Meraki MX requires improvements in reporting, flexibility, cost, control, scalability, language support, connectivity, and setup complexity.

Zscaler Internet Access needs better access control, integration, scalability, user interface, reporting, support, and pricing improvements.

It should automatically remediate and find out the issue and then resolve it on its own without interrupting the work of the employees.

MURALI NIDAMANURI

Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Data is the only path, so optimization is essential.

Mayur_Patel

Chief Commercial Officer at InnovAge Home Care

An improvement would be to use Cisco Meraki MX as a software solution as well, which might reduce the cost.

Sanjay Gaiswal

Technical Presales at Vcom Technologies

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Meraki MX report

The response time and engagement model for technical support could be improved to handle complex outages more efficiently.

Tejas Jain

Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

In future updates, I would like to see some of the features bundled into the existing product set, perhaps more AI features and a refreshed interface.

reviewer2223654

Cyber Security Architect at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Zscaler Internet Access has introduced AI control for tools such as ChatGPT, providing options to restrict to text-only input without file or image uploads through CASB restriction controls.

Mohan Janarthanan

Associate Vice President at Novac Technology Solutions

For more quotes and insights, download the Zscaler Internet Access report

Setup Cost

Cisco Meraki MX pricing is valued for cloud management but is costly, with potential discounts available through negotiation.

Zscaler Internet Access is costly but valued for its scalability, global control, and extensive cloud security features.

I get it for $25,000, a device that can connect up to 75-100 users, whereas in Meraki MX, it goes to 75,000-80,000 per access point.

MURALI NIDAMANURI

Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The price could be reduced by around 30% to make it more comfortable.

Sanjay Gaiswal

Technical Presales at Vcom Technologies

If Cisco can make the pricing less, customers can purchase more licenses.

Nader Elmansi

Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Meraki MX report

Zscaler Internet Access is recognized as an expensive solution.

Pawel Gawronski

Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees

Zscaler Internet Access is less expensive than competitors like Palo Alto, offering a premium service justified by security enhancements and cost-effective scalability.

Tejas Jain

Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Of course, it is an expensive product.

Ferdi Haider

Product Owner at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Zscaler Internet Access report

Valuable Features

Cisco Meraki MX offers centralized management, security, easy configuration, and robust performance, enhancing usability, connectivity, and deployment efficiency.

Zscaler Internet Access offers secure web gateway, scalability, low latency, policy controls, and advanced threat protection for organizations.

Meraki MX is among those top solutions in their exceptional approach towards VPN-less, Zero Trust client access to office private networks.

MURALI NIDAMANURI

Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Advanced security is the second tier of Cisco Meraki MX. It brings you the main next-generation firewalling features such as URL filtering, advanced malware protection, and threat protection.

Nader Elmansi

Presales System Engineer at Logicom Sales Inc

Cisco Meraki MX API makes it really easy for me to automate a lot of changes over several thousand devices.

reviewer2847915

Technology Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Cisco Meraki MX report

It prevents numerous web attacks through its AI/ML incorporated capability which identifies malware, threats, and viruses.

Mohan Janarthanan

Associate Vice President at Novac Technology Solutions

Zscaler Internet Access has positively impacted my organization by reducing the dependency on on-premises hardware and improving security posture, enabling faster user onboarding, and providing better performance for remote users.

VikasTiwari

Senior Network Engineer at Anthology

It automatically blocks access to known malicious websites and phishing or risky websites before users reach them, thereby reducing the number of security incidents we have to investigate.

Nikhil Kalyankar

Soc Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Zscaler Internet Access report

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Meraki MX

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Firewalls (8th), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (4th)

Zscaler Internet Access

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (3rd), Internet Security (2nd)

Featured Reviews

ChrisYankajtis

Systems Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Cloud-managed firewalls have simplified clinic networks and have empowered rapid remote deployment

If there was anything I can say I don't about it, I wish the automation was a little bit more friendly. If someone doesn't know too much about automations, I wish it had the ability within the platform to say, 'I want to run this automation within this network. Here's the new network that's coming on board. I'm utilizing the same firewalls, the same switches, same MVs. Here's the subnet that I'm going to use. Here are the IPs for the devices.' It should be able to give me that run book and configure it. That would be my main thing within the automation. I don't have much else to complain about. Everything is pretty straightforward. Back in the day, about five years ago, I tried to run 10 terabytes of data on an MX95 with a gig fiber coming in. The firewall was doing all the routing at the time and all the Layer 3. I did see some degraded performance trying to push that data through my MS350 10 gig switch. Once I moved the Layer 3 off the firewall and placed it on my core switch, I saw a better improvement. However, that was five years ago, and I'm not pushing that type of data out now. If the splash page was a little bit more appealing and more configurable, I think that would be nice.

Read full review

VikasTiwari

Senior Network Engineer at Anthology

Cloud security has transformed remote access and now supports zero trust for all users

The best features Zscaler Internet Access offers are Secure Web Gateway, URL filtering, SSL inspections, and policy-based access control. I find myself relying on Secure Web Gateway, URL filtering, SSL inspection, and policy-based access control the most because these are the main and top-most features I use regularly. Zscaler Internet Access has all of these types of features for securing all internet access and web inspections, allowing me to control all traffic through these features. Zscaler Internet Access features include a Secure Web Gateway for URL filtering, file type control, and inline SSL inspections. The second feature is a cloud firewall with Layer 3 to Layer 7 filtering control and stateful inspections. No hardware inspection or hardware firewall is required. I can also perform segmentations by users, location, and application. There is a cloud CASB solution available as well. Additionally, there is an advanced threat protection feature with signature-based behavioral detections, inline IPS, and zero-day threat protections. The cloud sandboxing solution scans unknown files and provides machine learning-based verdicts to prevent zero-day malware delivery in my environment. There is also a DNS security feature that provides DNS tunneling detections, malicious domain controls, and faster threat containment at the DNS layer. The data protection feature includes inline DLP and CASB-style cloud app control, data sovereignty enforcement, and browser isolation, which executes risky sites in isolated cloud browsers and prevents endpoint compromises. Zscaler Internet Access has positively impacted my organization by reducing the dependency on on-premises hardware and improving security posture, enabling faster user onboarding, and providing better performance for remote users. It has resulted in a drop in security incidents related to web threats and improved visibility into user activity. An area for improvement includes fine-grained troubleshooting tools, better policy simulations, and optimizations around initial configuration complexity.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	50
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	39

Questions from the Community

Fortigate 60d vs. Meraki MX67 for a small company without a dedicated IT Department

We have Meraki Mx devices now, we are looking to replace them. But that is because the Meraki MX platform lacks SSL Inspection, Granular Firewall rules (Block only, no allow setting), client vpn re...

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Which is better - Meraki MX or Cisco ASA Firewall?

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports network security and firewall options. We researched both Meraki and ASA. We liked t...

See all answers

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

I find the pricing for Cisco Meraki MX reasonable and competitive given the features provided and the target market. I believe it is acceptable.

See all answers

Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?

Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zscaler Internet Access is a good option for carrying out multiple security functi...

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Which is better, Zscaler internet access or Netsckope CASB?

We researched Netskope but ultimately chose Zscaler. Netskope is a cloud access security broker that helps identify and manage cloud applications, protecting your sensitive data from exfiltration....

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Internet Access?

We have not purchased Zscaler Internet Access through the AWS Marketplace; the licensing process was handled separately by our financial and management team.

See all answers

Comparisons

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 33% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 6% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 4% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Cisco Meraki MX

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco Meraki MX Competitors

Cisco Umbrella vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 31% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 5% of the time

Netskope vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 4% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Zscaler Internet Access

Compared 3% of the time

More Zscaler Internet Access Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Meraki MX

November 2026

Download Cisco Meraki MX product report

Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Internet Access

October 2026

Download Zscaler Internet Access product report

Also Known As

MX64, MX64W, MX84, MX100, MX400, MX600

ZIA

Overview

Cisco Meraki MX offers centralized management for network security and SD-WAN, featuring advanced threat protection, VPN capabilities, and seamless integration with other Cisco products. It enhances operational efficiency through cloud management and intuitive interface.

Cisco Meraki MX is designed for ease of use with a user-friendly cloud management platform that provides real-time insights through a centralized dashboard. It includes AutoVPN for secure remote connections and advanced threat protection to ensure consistent policy enforcement. Its integration capabilities with Cisco products streamline network administration. Users highlight the need for improvements in advanced reporting, detailed alerts, and enhanced API flexibility. Cost concerns are noted, alongside desires for better security analytics and improved customer support.

What are the key features of Cisco Meraki MX?

Centralized Dashboard: Provides real-time network insights.
User-friendly Cloud Management: Simplifies network administration.
Advanced Threat Protection: Ensures consistent policy enforcement.
AutoVPN: Simplifies secure remote connections.
Easy Configuration and Deployment: Enhances operational efficiency.

What benefits should be expected from Cisco Meraki MX?

Efficient Network Control: Streamlines management across sites.
Secure Internet Access: Provides advanced protection features.
Seamless Integration: Enhances user experience with other Cisco products.
Improved Connectivity: Facilitates remote troubleshooting and secure connections.

Cisco Meraki MX is implemented in industries like telecommunications and healthcare for secure network management and centralized control. It supports zero-touch deployment, dynamic routing, and traffic shaping, making it ideal for ISPs and multi-site environments, as well as managing Wi-Fi networks and guest security for wireless users.

Cisco

Zscaler Internet Access provides internet security through cloud-native architecture, ensuring threat protection and traffic management without relying on traditional VPNs and firewalls.

It enhances security by offering features such as CASB and DLP. With its cloud-native proxy architecture, it facilitates seamless security with reduced latency and high availability. Organizations value the scalability and centralized policy management, integrating seamlessly with existing systems for remote work. It ensures secure traffic management by delivering advanced threat protection and support for applications through SSL inspection and sandboxing. Enhanced measures for DLP, better integration with tools like MFA, and optimized reporting are areas for growth.

What are the key features?

Website Filtering: Controls access to harmful sites to protect users.
SSL Inspection: Shields against threats bypassing traditional defenses.
Cloud Sandbox: Provides advanced threat protection through testing.
CASB: Offers cloud application visibility and security enforcement.

What benefits should users seek?

Scalability: Easily adjusts to growing requirements without manual intervention.
Centralized Management: Simplifies policy implementation across locations.
Seamless Integration: Reduces need for traditional VPNs by integrating with remote infrastructure.

Many industries leverage Zscaler Internet Access for securing internet traffic and safeguarding against threats like malware and DDoS attacks. It is integral as a secure web gateway to fulfill data loss prevention, bandwidth control, and filtering needs, allowing remote users robust access and protection globally. Companies employ it alongside existing tools for proper security and policy enforcement.

Zscaler

Sample Customers

Hyatt, ONS

Ulster-Greene ARC, BanRegio, HDFC, Ralcorp Holdings Inc., British American Tobacco, Med America Billing Services Inc., Lanco Group, Aquafil, Telefonica, Swisscom, Brigade Group

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Netgate and others in Firewalls. Updated: October 2026.

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