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Meraki Dashboard pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco
4.3 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Meraki Dashboard provides exceptional support, improving continuously and increasing efficiency in managing networks.
With cloud-based centralized control, it enables remote problem resolution and effective security management outside business hours.
The single pane of glass feature offers comprehensive visibility, allowing users to manage and monitor devices and networks from one dashboard.
Scalability is a strong feature, accommodating thousands of users and supporting complex network protocols seamlessly.
Meraki Dashboard simplifies the integration and management of complex network components, integrating effortlessly with DNS, VPN, and other equipment.

CONS

Pricing for Meraki Dashboard needs improvement.
Licensing expiration leads to devices becoming non-functional.
There is an issue where third-party switches do not integrate easily.
The complexity of the initial setup can be enhanced for better usability.
Limited routing table with Meraki Dashboard requires expansion and summarization.
 

Meraki Dashboard Pros review quotes

IanMacfarlane - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 16, 2020
The ease-of-use and the analytics are really effective tools.
Solutionf170 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 16, 2019
An excellent dashboard that is currently unique in covering both SD-WAN and SD-LAN with built-in security.
PT
Aug 20, 2021
Everything is in a single pane and you can look at your network in one centralized place.
Learn what your peers think about Meraki Dashboard. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.
VP
Jun 1, 2022
What I found most valuable in the Meraki Dashboard is straight monitoring of the different devices, as well as the ability to easily set up VPNs, for example, both Meraki client VPNs and non-Meraki VPNs for different organizations that work with my company. I also like that the tool is a really good firewall.
Meraki677 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 23, 2019
The feature I find most valuable is the single pane of glass where you can configure a monitor view, all from one dashboard. For example, on the wireless side, you can configure it under the configuration panel, and then view statistics like location analytics, user analytics, etc.
Kamran Rasheed - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 8, 2025
Meraki Dashboard is a cloud-based solution to manage all devices from one single dashboard, and we can manage switches, routers, access points, and firewalls all from that single point.
DD
Oct 6, 2020
The dashboard itself is very simplified and easy to navigate.
Pete Grimshaw - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2023
We like how Meraki Dashboard lets you manage all the devices in a single pane of glass. The dashboard is intuitive and easy to use. They are constantly updating the functionality. Switches from other vendors have the same features for the life of the device, but Meraki is always improving.
MR
Apr 27, 2022
We find that Meraki has all the features you need to be able to enable complex network protocols for AV equipment. We deal with a streaming product over IP, and Meraki is fantastic at that.
MURALI NIDAMANURI - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 8, 2025
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.
 

Meraki Dashboard Cons review quotes

IanMacfarlane - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 16, 2020
The product is missing a VPN and it is a major issue when it comes to deployment.
Solutionf170 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 16, 2019
It is not appropriate for large, enterprise businesses.
PT
Aug 20, 2021
Meraki lacks their own software for connecting to the VPN which creates some issues.
Learn what your peers think about Meraki Dashboard. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.
VP
Jun 1, 2022
For my purposes, I don't need to see any other features added to the Meraki Dashboard. I have no criticisms and I do like the tool. If I had a criticism for it, it would be about the pricing because it could be a little less, but again, for the service that you get, I won't complain about that too much.
Meraki677 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 23, 2019
Not a lot of training is available.
Kamran Rasheed - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 8, 2025
I would rate Meraki Dashboard as eight out of ten as a product and solution. I rate it an eight due to some missing features in the system, particularly challenges encountered during firmware upgrades, where sometimes devices shut down and do not come back up, leaving us uncertain about why that happens.
DD
Oct 6, 2020
If I am a user and I have a seat on the fourth floor, if I move across the building, the system should be able to track me and should be able to figure out my whereabouts or my position within the building if I'm connected to the wireless. That would make the administrator's life easier in terms of reachability.
Pete Grimshaw - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2023
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.
MR
Apr 27, 2022
It's a very complex system. Customers have told me that sometimes there are lots of advanced features that are available and that you can change in the dashboard, but sometimes it's very hard to know what they are.
MURALI NIDAMANURI - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 8, 2025
Scalability has some limitations as they are not enterprise-ready, and large hyper-scale networks may not be possible on Meraki Dashboard.