Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Juniper EX Series Switches

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco's Catalyst is one of that company's brand of network switches.N/A
Juniper EX Series Switches
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Juniper 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.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
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 Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Considered Both Products
Cisco Catalyst Switches
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
You can’t beat Cisco comparatively in features vs. dollar for dollar value.
Juniper EX Series Switches
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 …
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 …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
Cisco Ethernet Switches
Cisco Ethernet Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(359 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.7
(29 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
9.2
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.4
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(21 ratings)
8.6
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.4
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.6
(23 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
So in every scenario where you have to take one port and create, make it so that you can have more devices connected. So there will be like in a normal office area where you have an internet connection and you have to have 40 or 20 clients connected. That's where definitely Catalyst Switches becomes a very important part of this. The whole thing, scenarios where it's not very usable, I can't really see a scenario where you wouldn't be needing a switch to. There would be a very unlikely scenario because mostly you would need to connect more than one device to a router or something like that. So you would need to have a switch scenario I would say. Then it would be in some sort of scenario where you only had a need to have a directly connection to a router or something else where you wouldn't need to have more ports. So like a peer to peer connection or something like that. But I can't really see any other scenario where wouldn't you wouldn't be needing a switch.
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
Read full review
Pros
Cisco
  • I think the switch is a fast switch. What we also admire about it is the enhanced power over ethernet functionality. It has higher power levels to be used for wireless, for other products that use the power over ethernet, the quick uplinks, 10 gig uplinks, the possibility to run other applications on it, like a thousand eyes clients, and so on.
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
Read full review
Cons
Cisco
  • Smaller devices are always preferred due to high mobility needs.
  • Would benefit from having console cables provided with networking devices instead of separate purchase.
  • Transit case options for larger devices would benefit and keep us from having to source outside vendors for support.
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.
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.
Read full review
Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
The usability will feel natural to frequent Cisco users and a bit harder to navigate if you're new to the system. If you're limited to a small rack, maybe even in a not climate controlled environment the fan-less models with less energy consumption are a pro. With PoE you can deploy your network hardware anywhere you have a network socket: Thin Clients, APs, Sensors, you name it. The integrated power monitoring tells you how much power each client consumes and how much you have left.
Read full review
Juniper Networks
The Juniper EX Series Switches are very easy to configure and quick to deploy. The ability to make changes and troubleshoot issues is top-rated. I have never had trouble contacting support. They also have many knowledge articles on use. Always adding new features to the Juniper Mist Dashboard for easy visibility into your network
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Cisco
We have had very few unplanned outages with all of our Cisco Catalyst products. The biggest issue I have seen is when a device has been powered on for a very long time and it gets powered off and reused later. Sometimes, the switch will not come back up. In most cases, these are switches that are way past end of life. I can't say we have really seen any other issues with the availability of the Catalyst family of switches
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.
Read full review
Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
So far we haven't had very many support issues with our Catalyst switches. When we have had issues TAC is always a pleasure to work with. They're prompt, knowledgeable, and take ownership of the case from open to close. Also, this isn't attributed to Cisco support directly. But because they are so widely known and have such a great market share you can find a solution to almost any issue with a quick internet search.
Read full review
Juniper Networks
Many times when contacting Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches support, it seems that it is easiest for support to recommend a straight replacement (RMA) instead of taking time to walk through a solution on the faulty system. We find we get better help from a third-party consulting firm that has Juniper certified technicians or professionals on staff. They take the time to explain processes and workflow, which Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches support seems to shy away from.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Cisco
I prefer in person training. For me I understand things and the ability to ask someone helps. This particular training was a large class and it was a bit busy. However, I do prefer in person training to online. I have taken many online courses, and while they do offer a lot more info at an affordable price, there is sometimes a place for the personal touch.
Read full review
Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Cisco
We upgraded from an older catalyst model to a newer one. The implementation was pretty much seamless as the newer switches supported all the features as the old ones. These features included OSPF, HSRP, MPLS, LDP, MP-BGP, etc. One issue we say with the newer switches was that the buffers needed to be tuned. The default settings were dropping packets to a slower link. Once we change the 'qos softmax' command settings, we were able to resolve that issue.
Read full review
Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
If I were to compare the Catalyst to the Meraki, I do feel more secure about the Catalyst, as Meraki was not originally a cisco product and was acquired. So, from the point of security and dependability, the Catalyst is a winner.
Read full review
Juniper Networks
The rollback, commit and confirm are the biggest players in the game. Juniper is the only one who has those features, so I believe they have a leg up in the game. The CLI is one of the easiest to work with.
Read full review
Scalability
Cisco
The product line is very complete and flexible. Supporting anything from small to larger modular solutions. Need PoE? Need 25Gb or faster fiber? Catalyst has you covered in all areas we can think of. Compact form factor? Industrial use? Cisco Catalyst has something that fits any scenario. And we can expect the same features, configuration and integrations to work no matter what.
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
Read full review
Juniper Networks
  • From a user's point of view, the ease of configuration and management has been incredible. Much less time is spent maintaining Juniper than previous solutions.
  • From a reseller's point of a view, Juniper is excellent. They treat small partners like us very well even if our volume is not huge. Juniper switches are part of our standard solution that has been great for our customers.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Cisco Catalyst Switches Screenshots

Screenshot of