Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Ubiquiti Networks UniFi

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
Ubiquiti Networks UniFi
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Ubiquiti Networks in San Jose provides their UniFi wi-fi hotspot technology.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUbiquiti Networks UniFi
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUbiquiti Networks UniFi
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 SwitchesUbiquiti Networks UniFi
Considered Both Products
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
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.
Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
Ubiquiti switches are easier to configure and, in my experience, just as reliable.
Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
I like Ubiquiti equipment a lot, they are more affordable than new Cisco, however, the old Cisco gear is so available and affordable it's hard to pass up. It has a great reseller market as well.
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
Cisco Catalyst Switches have offered better reliability, support and customization when compared to Ubiquiti networks. While Ubiquiti is cheaper, it required proprietary knowledge and training that was difficult to locate within the region. Engineers ended up having to get …
Ubiquiti Networks UniFi
Chose Ubiquiti Networks UniFi
Ubiquiti is much more user friendly than the Cisco products we considered using, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Cisco is top of the line and one of, if not the industry standard. However, for a small church organization with minimal experienced staff when it comes to …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUbiquiti Networks UniFi
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

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUbiquiti Networks UniFi
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(359 ratings)
8.7
(38 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.7
(29 ratings)
9.5
(3 ratings)
Availability
9.2
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.4
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(21 ratings)
6.9
(6 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 SwitchesUbiquiti Networks UniFi
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.
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Ubiquiti Networks
In the past few months we purchased thousands of dollars in brand new networking equipment from Ubiquiti. IT DOES NOT WORK CORRECTLY We bought 2 sets of hardware. 1 for home office and 1 for work. They both have the same issue (internet stops working). We have emailed literally dozens of times with customer service and they have not been able to resolve the issue. We have requested escalation to more trained technicians and have asked them to log into our system to assess. None of this has happened and our internet continues to intermittently work.
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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.
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Ubiquiti Networks
  • AP's are very affordable.
  • Most of the AP's are highly reliable and can be used indoors or in covered outdoor spaces.
  • Outdoor Mesh AP's with an external directional antenna can effectively cover outdoor spaces with dual band wifi better than much more expensive APs.
  • Unifi Protect via the Cloud Key Gen2+ is probably the slickest, most affordable IP camera system on the market right now.
  • Unifi controller is powerful yet simple to administrate.
  • Remote management of entire networks through a single pane of glass is easy to accomplish with the Unifi controller.
  • Cloud Key Gen2 solves problems with the first Cloud Key wiht a built-in battery backup.
  • When you are "full stack" Unifi with wifi, network switches and gateways, the control you can wield over a network in just a few clicks and the amount of data you can glean from a quick glance in the controller is incredibly impressive. It makes an IT guy wish every product/service could be so tightly and well-integrated.
  • Community support is excellent, Unifi staff monitors their official forums and responds to almost every thread.
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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.
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Ubiquiti Networks
  • VLANs: They can make these work more smoothly. Setup can be more intuitive.
  • Cloud Key: These need to be stabilized; they lose their programming a little too easily.
  • Stop selling the Gen-1 cloud key: No battery means you need an external power source or you must be onsite to power it off before updating.
  • Portal can be modernized.
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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.
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Ubiquiti 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.
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Ubiquiti Networks
UniFi's system is intuitive in how options are placed and explained throughout the interface. What is not directly explainable within the interface, Ubiquiti does provide several knowledgebase documents explaining best practices and methods of troubleshooting when things don't go exactly right. We've been using them for over three years, and the benefits vastly outweigh any negatives we could come up with on the equipment and system.
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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
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Ubiquiti 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.
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Ubiquiti 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.
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Ubiquiti Networks
Support tickets can be proactively created within the dashboard with full detailed documentation. The Ubiquiti website provides detailed documentation on support. Forum and user groups also provide the interested community with information that covers all aspects of issues or questions users can encounter with the latest and most updated information.
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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.
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Ubiquiti 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.
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Ubiquiti 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
Ubiquiti Networks
Ubiquiti is overall easier to work with. There is no special training needed to accomplish many of the things required with a Cisco product. Since my time is stretched thin, I need something that I can manage without being weighed down by command-line communications. Also, I am able to use my wireless devices to maintain every Ubiquiti device on my network.
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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.
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Ubiquiti 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
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Ubiquiti Networks
  • The access points and switch were extremely affordable and we've had minimal downtime over the life of the products.
  • The switch was in our main rack and there was a bug in the firmware that would reboot the switch if you made a change to one of the switch ports (that was not in use at the time). This caused our entire organization to have a network outage, in the middle of the day. Fortunately we didn't have any customer refunds to issue. We've had to purchase different switches for the main racks, and place the UniFi switch in a better suited place.
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ScreenShots

Cisco Catalyst Switches Screenshots

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