Technical and Cost Comparison: Meraki MG51 vs Cradlepoint W1850

[Alic-Antunez]

Hi everyone, I am evaluating the Meraki MG51 and the Cradlepoint W1850 to improve my business network's connectivity and need your insights on which device is better in terms of technical performance (speed, traffic management, reliability), operational ease (setup, management, integration), and cost-effectiveness (initial price, maintenance, licensing). Any experiences or recommendations you can share would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

__PRESENT

[alemabrahao]

I have two recommendations:

1- Read the technical data sheet of both;
2- Consult your Meraki sales representative.

[PhilipDAth]

I don't know anything about Cradlepoint, but I will assume it is not cloud-managed.

So pros for the Meraki MG51:

• Firmware updates and security patches will be automatically applied
• A dashboard that lets you easily see if it is online and its operational parameters.

[Alic-Antunez]

Hi Philip, thanks for your response.

I believe it's cloud-managed. They use a portal named NetCloud Manager.

[PhilipDAth]

In that case I can only offer you generic marketing.  🙂
https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2018/07/5-reasons-why-cloud-managed-it-is-the-wave-of-the-future/

[Arthamon]

Having used both platforms I can tell you it depends on your use case. 

Meraki’s dashboard is easy to use and getting an MG appliance up and running is easy. Use MG by itself if you are looking for basic connectivity only, no security services.

Netcloud is more feature rich and provides additional features beyond that of the MG. Cradlepoints are designed to be used as edge devices and has a full suite of security features with the right licensing.

In order to get similar features in Meraki you’ll need to use an MX appliance alongside the MG.

Cradlepoints have better cellular modems as well.

Comes down to your use case.

[javalins · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the contribution here @Arthamon - there is a lot to unpack here, apologies for the longer than usual response.

1) Cisco vets out it's modem vendors and we only use high end components from vendors such as Telit, which is a vendor that Cradlepoint also leverages for some of their platforms.  In terms of the cellular modems being better, these radios are built of Qualcomm chips and adhere to the relavent 3GPP standard.  The statement that Cradlepoint has better radio's is simply not true.

2) Cradlepoint is a point product focused on the cellular experience, they are feature rich, cloud managed and have long been the leading player in this space as far as point products go.

3) Meraki focuses on the platform experience and leveraging a single pane of glass for automation, lifecycle management and assurance.  On any level, we do not compete solely with point products, we rely on the power of the platform and the tight integration between the multiple network elements that Meraki has (MG, MX, MS, MR, MV, MT etc..). 

4) The MG is not a firewall, it is a connectivity mechanism like you have noted - it was not designed for that use case in the same way the CP cellular adapters (CBA/L/W) are not designed for the Firewall/SDWAN use case. For a true NGFW and SDWAN experience, the MX behind the MG is the way to pair this out.

Long story long, it really depends on the use case and the experience you are after.  If having all the geek-knobs is important, than CP more than likely will suffice.  However, if you are looking for a unified platform experience across all of your network elements, there is no alternative to Meraki in the industry.  Going back to the original response, please reach out to your account team at Meraki - they will have the resources to help navigate this conversation.

-JV

[Arthamon]

Thanks @javalins , that was more detail than I can provide, I guess that's why reps from Meraki are here 🙂

I want to apologize for my comments about "better" modems as I mis-spoke. What I meant by that was CP has a broader range of cellular bands in use by their modems. Of course this depends on the models on each platforms.

[javalins]

Thanks @Arthamon, I'm making the assumption you are referring to the recently announced EOS MG21 and the CAT6 band support, it's pretty much on par with other CAT6 devices.  The MG41/51 are global chipsets with pretty diverse band support. -JV

[PatWruk]

While I haven't used the W1850, I've used the Cradlepoint CBA850 & L950 models, and I have also used an MG41.

Simply, they both do roughly the same thing, they bring in a cell connection, and they are cloud managed.

Cost wise, from what I've seen, the Cradlepoint is cheaper.

BUT

When trying to do dual SIM and have it work on your network, the MG works so much better and easier. We had issues trying to get the Cradlepoint device to failover and route properly. The MG, no configuration needed, it just works.

Updates on the MG vs Cradlepoint, Meraki wins hands down, so much easier.

You don't update devices with Cradlepoint, you update groups, so you have to setup those groups first, not horrible, but not as easy as Meraki.

Having the MG in the same dashboard as the rest of your network(s) simplifies the management.

My personal pick would be the MG, but figured I'd give you the information I had.