TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Juniper EX Series Switches

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Catalyst Switches

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/ACisco's Catalyst is one of that company's brand of network switches.N/A

    Juniper EX Series Switches

    Score9.5 out of 10
    N/AJuniper Networks offers the EX Series Ethernet switches, as cloud-grade switches designed for the converged enterprise branch, campus, and data center, and for service providers. They address growing enterprise demands for high availability, unified communications, and virtualization.

    $1,680

    one-time fee approx

    Pricing
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    EX2300-C
    $1680
    one-time fee approx
    EX4100-F-12P
    $4,585.00
    one-time fee approx
    EX230
    $5830
    one-time fee approx
    EX4100-24MP
    $8,640.00
    one-time fee approx
    EX4100-F-48P
    $8,665.00
    one-time fee approx
    EX4300-48P
    $9,169.99
    one-time fee approx
    EX4400-24X-AFI
    $9,824.99
    one-time fee approx
    EX3400-48P
    $12,322.99
    one-time fee approx
    EX4400-24MP
    $14,315.00
    one-time fee approx
    EX4400-48MP
    $15,510.00
    one-time fee approx
    EX4600
    $31,273.99
    one-time fee approx
    EX4650
    $33,030.00
    one-time fee approx
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPricing is dependent on type of switches and the vendor selling them.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    better performance and manageability
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    Cisco Catalyst Switches stacking have dedicated ports compared to Aruba with front stack/uplink ports.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    My organization has always been a Cisco shop and leans toward that product line. There is nothing today from a feature set perspective that would force us to change.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    Configuration is easy, Cisco Catalyst Switches are reliable, Extreme sucks.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    They weren't the cheapest, but they had the greatest skills available in the market, they were reliable and they fitted well into our environment. The sales team were thorough and comprehensive, although not much spin needed - they are rock solid, everyone knows how to use …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    In comparison to the NETGEAR and Linksys, these are simple single VLAN switches that are not business capable. Cisco switches give you the ability to separate segments as well as true single-port speed, no sharing. In comparison to Aruba, Aruba just recently got into the PoE …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    Juniper is another great product in terms of quality. The pool of talent that knows Cisco is greater however which is an advantage for Cisco. I do like Juniper's ability to confirm the commit, allowing for rollback of configuration if there are issues. Both are good quality …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    Cisco Catalyst Switches seem to have more of a variety of choices to be able to fit your needs in every situation. Juniper, however, is less costly in purchasing.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    You can’t beat Cisco comparatively in features vs. dollar for dollar value.
    Incentivized
    Juniper Networks
    Chose Juniper EX Series Switches
    Juniper is a pretty good competitor compared with these lines. It has the easiest CLI and they are very easy to manage. The most amazing thing about [the] Juniper EX line is [that] they are pretty stable as compared to the other vendors. Also [another] thing is that they have …
    Incentivized
    Chose Juniper EX Series Switches
    In terms of performance and quality, Juniper EX switches are at the top of the line. I've been impressed with their uptime, features and quality. I find their CLI to be more difficult than Cisco or HPE Aruba, however like anything, one picks it up with time. Our network is in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Juniper EX Series Switches
    Juniper is much better than Cisco. Especially when it comes to price for performance. I can do the same thing with a Juniper switch and a Cisco switch at the same power-level. It cost much less to run the Juniper switch. I also have the Mist dashboard which provides incredible …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    493 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    439 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    494 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    407 Answers
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    470 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    RUCKUS Ethernet Switches
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Cisco Ethernet Switches
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (625 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (31 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (32 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    9.2
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.8
    (30 ratings)
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    7.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.4
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.7
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.2
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.6
    (30 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.9
    (31 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I think the most suited ones will be of course, for example, a supermarket where you have more than 50 plus devices because there are like 48 ports in a switch. We can just use a lot of devices and connect them to it. A less use case will be, I think it depends at the end of the day how your topology looks like. If you have a very few devices, you shouldn't be going for these catalyst switches because they are of course much bigger, more processing power and all those things. If you have, again, it comes to topology. If you have the number of users who are using these switches is less than 15, it's less than 15, then you can just go for any other option and not use them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    They work great as core switches, data center switches, top of rack switches. They can even serve as routers, their routing capability is great, except for where you need lots of routing processing power. I would not use many of them for branch office switches though, due to noise and slowness of bootup
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • One of the things that it does well, it's not something major, but there's a light tracking feature that the 9300 comes with that you can turn on the light and that has become critical in a data center environment where you want to help someone to make sure that you're talking about the same switch, you can turn the light on and off something that is not available in other versions of Cisco switches before the 9300. So it's not as major, but it's quite critical when you're dealing with multiple systems and multiple switches.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    • Very stable.
    • Cost efficient
    • Easy management
    • Great Juniper 24*7 TAC support
    • Different variants available for different requirements.
    • Easy to replace faulty hardware
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Functionality. Well, one of the functions that we are missing is a faster route based on OSPF. Other than that, it could provide an upgrade without a hitless upgrade. Well, now it is a very fast upgrade, which is also okay. We had a case when the platform crashed, but that was a specific case. We were happy with this product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    • Virtual chassis new switch has overwritten existing config if not performed in a particular way.
    • Applying a configuration to a range of interfaces could be done in a better way.
    • Applying firewall rules to multiple security zones could be done a little more efficiently.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    They are consistently reliable and this switch in particular is a very affordable solution. We can place the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series Switches gear in areas that we normally would not place a switch because it is affordable enough to make it justifiable. And because it is a reliable solution, we are confident it will continue to provide service over the long haul.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Cisco
    Cisco by and far does a great job with the Catalyst line. From a layer 2 dumb switch all the way up to ISP carrier grade switching within the Catalyst portfolio. The best part about it is command parity among the various tiers of product. The only differences are going to lie in what features are available per switch.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    The Mist portal is extremely easy to use. I only have a few issues with it. The configuration between Mist and the CLI is not uniform. If you push some command line configurations to the switch, they won't be mirrored in Mist. You need to use the CLI portion on the switch config page to push some CLI only configurations. If you want to remove those lines, you need remember to do the inverse of the config. You need to make sure your juniper admins understand this as well. Simply removing the line from the CLI text box of the Mist page does not remove the config line from the switch itself.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    We have very few is any outages due to a Cisco hardware failure. Some of our gear is exposed to some pretty harsh environments, and they keep on ticking!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Cisco
    No, the packets flow. Sometimes you will see collisions and broadcast storms can happen which will slow performance but that can be fixed and the packets will flow.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    We rarely have issues with the product. I have only had to contact support one time since we put it in and that was to see if another vendor was giving me accurate information on an issue I was having.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    When you open ticket, normally a L2 support engineer request support file and give you a valid fast solution. They replace switch if no solution are available due to minimize downtime
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    Cisco Networking Academy partners with many local Colleges and High Schools to provide great hands-on training. You do need to drive to learn the topic. The in-class session only go so far. You really need to apply this to the real world. Cisco makes it easy for business to connect via CLC or Cisco Learning Credits.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Cisco
    My own personal research to get the information I want is very handy and helped me many times
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    The implementation of the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series Switches is fairly seamless, especially if you are familiar with Cisco products. We have had Brocade switch gear in place too, and the differences between the manufacturers [are] not a major issue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We do have other vendors. For example, Juniper, Fortinet, and there are quite a few others. And Cisco is pretty good because we know the workflow, we know how the operating system works. We are much more familiar with Cisco products and we know the support system behind it. So in terms of comparing with others, I think it stands out. It's one of our top products to go to
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    Juniper EX Switches are far more reliable than NETGEAR Ethernet Switches. The Juniper EX Series Switches offer a wider scope of options for configuration. The EX switches can be deployed faster and easier to configure. The Juniper EX Series Switches offer more value for their price point than most switches on the market, in my opinion
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    We are exclusive Cisco at our organization. In truth part of the reason is, with one type of switch and one manufacturer, it is easier to support. It is also easier to give consistent training to our staff in our tech department
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • energy costs dropped by around 11 per cent on the access layer
    • management has become easier with DNA Center
    • ISSU software upgrades and fabric deployments have significantly reduced "planned" down times
    • network speed has increased, latency is at an all-time best within our own LAN
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Juniper Networks
    • The Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches have provided a life span beyond what our replacement cycle allots, which allows us to have more time to budget for replacements.
    • The initial purchase price is very competitive with other enterprise network switching companies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Cisco Catalyst Switches Screenshots

    Product screenshotScreenshot of Catalyst 9200 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9300 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9400 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9400 Series Additional ViewScreenshot of Catalyst 9500 Series