In short
Meraki Essentials vs Advantage is the choice between the two feature tiers in Meraki subscription licensing. Essentials covers core management, security and SD-WAN features; Advantage includes all of that plus features such as Adaptive Policy, AI-RRM on wireless and WAN, VoIP and web app health on the MX. Cameras, cellular gateways and sensors have Essentials only.
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How the two tiers work
Cisco Networking Subscription replaced the older per-family editions with a two-tier model for simplicity. Advantage is the superset: it includes everything in Essentials, plus extra features that differ by product family.
Three things make the tiers more flexible than the older editions:
- Per network, per product type: the tier is set for each product type (wireless, switching, security and SD-WAN, and so on) in each network, under Organization > Configure > Subscriptions & license info. A head office can run Advantage on its MX while branches run Essentials.
- Mixable in one subscription: a single subscription can hold both Essentials and Advantage licences.
- Upgradable mid-term: you can move a network to Advantage part-way through a term once the subscription holds the licences.
The tiers apply to subscription licensing only. If your organisation is on co-term or per-device licensing, see the Meraki licensing models hub and the edition comparison for MX Enterprise vs Advanced Security. Meraki does not publish a direct mapping from the older editions to these tiers, so we size each case from its own feature list.
Which product families have which tiers
| Product family | Essentials | Advantage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wireless (MR) | Yes | Yes | Advantage networks cannot be bound to configuration templates |
| Cisco Wireless Wi-Fi 7 | Yes | Yes | Unified licence; see Meraki Wi-Fi 7 |
| Switches (MS and cloud-managed Catalyst) | Yes | Yes | Some Advantage features need specific switch families |
| Security and SD-WAN (MX) | Yes | Yes | vMX supports Essentials only |
| Teleworker gateways (Z-series) | Yes | Yes | Advantage features need the current teleworker gateway |
| Smart cameras (MV) | Yes | - | Cloud Archive and MV Sense are add-ons |
| Cellular gateways (MG) | Yes | - | Single tier |
| Sensors (MT) | Yes | - | End of sale announced for the product line |
The sections below list the features Meraki shows for each family. Where a feature needs a separate licence or particular hardware, we note it.
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Wireless (MR): Essentials vs Advantage
| Feature | Essentials | Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| Centralised management in the Meraki dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Zero-touch firmware updates | Yes | Yes |
| Open APIs | Yes | Yes |
| Live Protect | Yes | Yes |
| Intelligent Capture | Yes | Yes, with extra capture and analysis options |
| Cisco Spaces Essentials | Yes | - |
| Cisco Spaces Advantage | - | Yes |
| Adaptive Policy | - | Yes |
| AI-RRM (AI-driven radio resource management) | - | Yes |
Advantage on wireless is about policy and radio intelligence: Adaptive Policy for group-based segmentation and AI-RRM for radio tuning. Meraki notes that AI-RRM needs current MR firmware. One trade-off to plan for: Meraki states that networks on the wireless Advantage tier are not eligible for configuration template binding, while Essentials networks can be bound to templates. If you run many near-identical sites from templates, that matters. For the access points themselves see Meraki MR series, and for supply and installation, Forever Group's Meraki access points service.
Switching (MS): Essentials vs Advantage
| Feature | Essentials | Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| Centralised management, access policies and change of authorisation | Yes | Yes |
| URL redirect, port isolation and Wake on LAN | Yes | Yes |
| Layer 3 routing, ECMP, warm spare and multicast | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic ARP inspection, QoS, UDLD and switchport profiles | Yes | Yes |
| StackWise Virtual and ISSU (supported cloud-managed Catalyst only) | Yes | Yes |
| Adaptive Policy (supported switch families) | - | Yes |
| NetFlow and Encrypted Traffic Analytics (supported switch families) | - | Yes |
| Cloud EVPN fabric (supported cloud-managed Catalyst) | - | Yes |
For most access-layer switching, Essentials covers the day-to-day features. Advantage is for organisations adopting group-based policy with Adaptive Policy, wanting flow visibility, or building an EVPN fabric on cloud-managed Catalyst. Several Advantage features only run on particular switch families, so check the hardware before you buy the tier. See Meraki MS switches and Meraki MS licensing.
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Security and SD-WAN (MX): Essentials vs Advantage
| Feature | Essentials | Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| SD-WAN, Auto VPN and third-party VPN peering | Yes | Yes |
| WAN failover, load balancing and cellular failover | Yes | Yes |
| Stateful firewall, client VPN and group policies | Yes | Yes |
| Layer 7 application visibility and enforcement (NBAR) | Yes | Yes |
| Intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS) | Yes | Yes |
| Content filtering powered by Talos, web search filtering and YouTube restrictions | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) and geography-based firewall rules | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration templates | Yes | Yes, limited to Essentials features |
| Adaptive Policy (assigning group tags) | - | Yes |
| SD-Internet steering and Smart Breakout | - | Yes |
| WAN Health, VoIP Health, Web App Health and Internet Outages | - | Yes |
| ThousandEyes integration (separate licence) | - | Yes |
On the MX, Essentials already includes the threat protection features: IDS/IPS, Talos content filtering and Advanced Malware Protection. Advantage adds analytics and internet path intelligence: health views for WAN links, voice and web applications, internet outage visibility, smart breakout for SaaS traffic and SD-Internet steering. Cisco Umbrella DNS integration, Secure Malware Analytics and ThousandEyes each need their own licence on either tier (see our sister site on Cisco Umbrella with Meraki).
Two Meraki notes to plan around: vMX does not support Advantage, so a network containing a vMX cannot set the security and SD-WAN product type to Advantage; and templates can be used on Advantage networks but only to configure Essentials features. For the appliances themselves, see Forever Group's Meraki MX service.
Teleworker gateways (Z-series): Essentials vs Advantage
| Feature | Essentials | Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| Centralised management and zero-touch provisioning | Yes | Yes |
| Auto VPN, client VPN and SD-WAN essentials | Yes | Yes |
| Stateful firewall, NBAR traffic analytics and group policies | Yes | Yes |
| Cellular failover and wireless | Yes | Yes |
| Geography-based firewall rules (current gateway) | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration templates | Yes | - |
| Talos content filtering and web search filtering (current gateway) | - | Yes |
| Advanced Malware Protection (current gateway) | - | Yes |
| WAN Health, VoIP Health, Internet Outages and Smart Breakout (current gateway) | - | Yes |
For home workers, Essentials gives the secure tunnel back to the office and central policy. Advantage adds web filtering and malware protection at the home edge plus the health analytics, but Meraki lists these as needing the current teleworker gateway hardware, not earlier models. See Meraki teleworker gateway.
Cameras, cellular gateways and sensors
Three families have a single Essentials tier:
- Smart cameras (MV): Essentials covers centralised management, video wall, video search and exports, motion alerts, zones and analytics. Cloud Archive and MV Sense are separate add-on licences, and the base camera licence is needed first. See Meraki MV licence.
- Cellular gateways (MG): Essentials covers centralised management, SIM APN settings, signal strength graphs, traffic shaping, safe mode and SIM slot switching. See Meraki MG cellular gateways.
- Sensors (MT): Essentials covers sensor data, alerts, APIs, MQTT export and automations. Cisco has announced end of sale for the whole MT line; see Meraki MT sensors before renewing.
Trying Advantage before you buy
Organisations on subscription licensing can start a 30-day Advantage feature tier trial at no extra cost, from Organization > Configure > Subscriptions & license info, Networks tab. Meraki's rules:
- Trials are per network and per product class, so you can trial Advantage on one site's MX without touching anything else.
- At the end of 30 days, if no Advantage licences have been added, the product class drops back to Essentials. Traffic and basic management carry on; only Advantage features switch off.
- After a trial ends there is a 45-day reset period before another trial on the same product class in the same network.
- Networks covered by an Enterprise Agreement do not use trials, because EA tiers can already be changed.
A trial on a representative site is the best way to judge whether the health analytics or Adaptive Policy will be used in practice.
How to choose, and how we help
A sensible starting point for most organisations:
- Essentials where the job is reliable connectivity and security at a typical branch or small office
- Advantage on the MX at hub sites or wherever voice and SaaS performance matter, and on wireless or switching where you plan to use Adaptive Policy or AI-RRM
- Watch the templates rule on wireless before putting template-driven sites on Advantage
Forever Systems is a Cisco Partner. We can map your sites to tiers, check that your hardware supports the features you are paying for, and quote a mixed Essentials and Advantage subscription. Tiers and terms are confirmed at quote; ask us for a quote or contact us to talk it through.
Working with us on Cisco Meraki
Forever Systems helps organisations plan, buy and run cloud-managed networks built on Cisco Meraki wireless, switching, security and SD-WAN.
- Plan the network: we look at your sites, users and existing kit, and can arrange a wireless site survey before anything is ordered
- Choose the right products: access points, switches, security appliances, cellular gateways, sensors and cameras sized to what each site needs, rather than a one-size bundle
- Licensing made clear: we explain co-termination, per-device and subscription licensing, check renewal dates and quote the licences you need
- Deployment help: we can set up the Meraki dashboard, organisations, networks, templates and policies, and help move you from older or on-premise kit
- Ongoing help: changes, licence renewals and reviews as your sites grow, with the scope agreed at quote
Ask us for a quote and we will confirm what is included for your organisation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Meraki Essentials and Advantage?
Essentials is the base subscription tier and covers core management, security and SD-WAN features. Advantage includes everything in Essentials plus advanced features that vary by family, such as Adaptive Policy and AI-RRM on wireless, Adaptive Policy and EVPN fabric on switching, and WAN, VoIP and web app health analytics on the MX.
Can I mix Essentials and Advantage in one Meraki organisation?
Yes. Tiers are set per product type in each network, and a single subscription can hold both Essentials and Advantage licences, so different sites can run different tiers.
Does Meraki MX Essentials include IDS/IPS and content filtering?
Yes. Meraki's MX subscription feature table lists IDS/IPS, Talos-powered content filtering, web search filtering and Advanced Malware Protection in both Essentials and Advantage. Cisco Umbrella and Secure Malware Analytics integrations need separate licences.
Does vMX support the Advantage tier?
No. Meraki states that the vMX does not support Advantage; if a network includes a claimed vMX, the Advantage tier cannot be set for that product class.
Can I trial Meraki Advantage?
Yes, if your organisation uses subscription licensing. You can start a 30-day Advantage trial for a product class on a network. If no Advantage licences are added, it reverts to Essentials at the end of the trial without affecting traffic.
Is Meraki Advantage the same as Advanced Security?
Not exactly. Advanced Security is an MX edition in the older co-term and per-device models; Advantage is a subscription tier. Meraki does not publish a one-to-one mapping, and MX Essentials already includes the main threat protection features, so compare the feature lists rather than the names.
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