Cisco Catalyst Switches vs MikroTik Routers and Switches

Likelihood to Recommend

I can't think of any situation where you would not want to use this type of switch. Once installed, it did not take long to see a company-wide improvement in throughput. By comparison, our old system seemed to have a choke, it was slow. The upfront cost for the hardware and management will pay for itself through increased productivity. We should have realized this years ago and made the update to our equipment.

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mike nugent

Quality Manager

BC SystemsMilitary, 51-200 employees

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MikroTik is suited for large companies that require advanced distributions in terms of contracted bandwidth, and in the same way, allows a single device to specify filtering and firewall rules without acquiring an additional device. There is a range for small companies which is more economical and less robust, but in case it's not necessary, such a strict control over the data consumption of the company is not a feasible solution.

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Carlos Alberto Pedron Espinett

Especialista de Desarrollo

ARCA International GroupBanking, 201-500 employees

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Pros

Stability and Reliability - We have not had many failures over the past years using Cisco Catalyst switches.
Flexibility - Cisco Catalyst switches offers a wide portfolio of switching equipment which can address a variety of needs. This includes switches with stacking and non-stacking capability, fixed rackmount and chassis options which can be mounted in data centre racks and and also compact switching which may be more feasible for small SOHO offices.
Scalable Performance - Cisco Catalyst switches offers various port speeds from 1Gbps 10Gbps, 100Gbps etc. This is available in both copper (RJ45) and fibre (SFP). Many models also offer a variety of uplink speed options which future proofs the invest in Cisco technologies allowing us to upgrade depending on our changing business requirements and available budgets.

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Zakarieya Abderoef

Solutions Architect

Baraka Technology GroupInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

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Affordable, it has more features compared to other brand at the same price.
Widely available, by today it's easy to obtained one, even online retailers sell it.
Highly customizable, you may write a powerful script to enhance the function.
Flexible, you can make different configuration approach based on you needs.

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Alex Anwar

Aerospace IT Specialist

CommunicAVIA Pte LtdAirlines/Aviation, 1-10 employees

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Cons

Would like to see a second power supply so it can get power from two different sources.
Hard to find a USB flash drive that will work when loading images for upgrade.
IOS upgrades are a pain to perform. Upgrades should be an easy process. Would like to perform the upgrade through a web browser.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Company, 10,001+ employees

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Administration dashboard
BGP in Multiple Core

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Tanner Moreno

Gerente

OvnicomTelecommunications, 51-200 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

MikroTik Routers and Switches 9.0

Based on 1 answer

Almost perfect, despite some issue that need to be addressed by the manufacturer. If this issue has been addressed, a full 10 mark will be given.

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Alex Anwar

Aerospace IT Specialist

CommunicAVIA Pte LtdAirlines/Aviation, 1-10 employees

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Support Rating

Cisco Catalyst Switches 9.0

Based on 1 answer

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.

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Ryhlen Schoeberl

Systems Administrator II

Vast BroadbandTelecommunications, 201-500 employees

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MikroTik Routers and Switches 5.1

Based on 3 answers

There is no SOC, NOC, where you can contact to try to resolve any difficulties. The problems that these devices have are solved largely through the community, with workaround alternatives, or if the support team responds to a request, the response times are too high for the current needs of technological communications.

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Tanner Moreno

Gerente

OvnicomTelecommunications, 51-200 employees

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Alternatives Considered

* Arista Switches** Arista switches are great, don't get me wrong, but the lack of PoE support, the lack of stacking, has really hindered their entry way into the campus market, 99% of my use cases are campus switching for end users, not data center, in this market, cisco wins hands down every time.

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Dustin Reeves

Network Engineer

Wilks Brothers LLCOil & Energy, 1001-5000 employees

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I am managing lots of different networks for our customers, and the Sophos firewall has been causing me a lot of frustration lately. For every feature, there is another license you need to buy. Not as reliable as the MikroTik routers, too many updates or just service stops.Netgear is as inexpensive at MikroTik, but not reliable and not as performant.Cisco products are expensive compared to MikroTik, but as reliable.

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Adrian Takacs

Infrastructure Engineer

X-Net SolutionsInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees

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Return on Investment

Cisco catalyst switches have allowed our networks to run smoothly with no interruptions.
These switches are scalable so we were able to add more switches as needed, without interrupting the network activity.
Automation techniques allowed us to deploy configuration with minimum effort.

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Andrew Yudin, MBA/CCNP

Principal Network and Security Engineer

Cheetah DigitalMarketing & Advertising, 1001-5000 employees

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First of all it's cheaper than Cisco routers.
It has more functionality than Cisco routers that cost 4 times more.
It has a GUI. But it has CLI too.

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Marcin Chabowski

Teacher

Zespół Szkół Elektronicznych in BydgoszczPrimary/Secondary Education, 51-200 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs MikroTik Routers and Switches