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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco IOS

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ACisco IOS, presently in its 15th edition, is a network operating system for service providers and enterprises alike.N/A

    FreeBSD

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AFreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms. A large community has continually developed it for more than thirty years. Its advanced networking, security, and storage features have made FreeBSD the platform of choice for many of the busiest web sites and most pervasive embedded networking and storage devices.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco IOSFreeBSD
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco IOSFreeBSD
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco IOSFreeBSD
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    CentOS Linux
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    IBM AIX
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco NX-OS
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Score9.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco IOSFreeBSD
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco IOSFreeBSD
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I've worked with several network device vendors in my 10+ years of being in the industry and my favorite continues to be Cisco IOS. Overall, Cisco IOS tends to be the most stable, the most intuitive, has the best TAC support, and has the best knowledge base articles and white papers.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    FreeBSD is an excellent choice to continue using older hardware and have it perform, it is a great choice for a UNIX based development environment. Although I haven't used it as a server, it is most suited for this - it would make an excellent, secure and robust server for and I would love to start using it for this as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • User friendly CLI.
    • Quick fixes for critical bugs.
    • Longer uptime.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    • stability
    • security
    • scalability
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • By this point, there are several "flavors" of the Cisco IOS such as XE, XR, and the standard Cisco IOS. While they are all fairly similar, there does exist syntax differences between them. It would be ideal if at some point in the future, Cisco is able to unify all of them into one standard operating system which would use the same syntax across all platforms.
    • While overall Cisco does a great job of QA'ing their IOS, no matter the release, there's always some minor bugs. I think it's important that Cisco continue to pour resources into their QA team to test their software.
    • While I'm very familiar with the graphical readouts of "show processes cpu history" I would love for Cisco to eventually find a more intuitive way to display this data. I can't begin to count how many times I've had to teach more entry level (and even mid level) engineers how this graph is interpreted.
    • I do wish that Cisco had something similar to Juniper's "commit check" or "commit confirmed". This helps validate the changes you're about to apply, and catch errors, so that you have a better idea of the impact of the change.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    • Installation can be tricky for first timers
    • You need to be comfortable using a command line terminal most of the time
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    The data that Cisco IOS is able to provide is extremely relevant, it's fast, and it's intuitive. I also love that you're able to leverage things like macros or EEM scrips to run multiple commands at once. This is especially useful when you have more junior or entry level engineers in your environment and you want to provide them with a "shortcut" by having them type a single command to execute multiple commands.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We have found other Cisco software to be filled with added functionalities as compared to iOS. New NCS software has certain programmability features that are advantageous to legacy iOS software but are more complex to use for some users. Hence, we still have most areas of the network that functions using iOS software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    FreeBSD is the closest to the original BSD unix. This OS is currently used by vendors in the field of routing, switching, security as well as base OS for MAC devies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Great uptimes on proven availability/reliability.
    • Longevity of these switches ensures great ROI.
    • Easy to learn for new users.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    • As FreeBSD is free - the ROI is at least the cost of some commercial Linux or Windows based OS (which can be very expensive)
    • Allowed the re-use of older hardware that would have otherwise been disposed
    • No cost development environment
    • Opportunity for a no cost server setup also
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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