Cisco Catalyst Switches vs MikroTik Routers and Switches

Likelihood to Recommend

There are so many scenarios where Cisco Catalyst Switches are well suited like if the switch needs to move multiple frames in the same port, switch the frames directly to the memory, sending them one at a time, thus avoiding collisions. Selecting specific endpoints prevents Ethernet collisions from happening. The switch is very secure, as it makes any hole directly in contact with any other port. The cost of the number of ports is relatively high.

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Chetan Swaroop

Executive Assistant

MultitechserversInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 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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Some of the wiki articles have not been updated or are not accurate enough. We spent a couple of days trying to find an example of implementing a mobile IPSec client solution. But once this has been implemented, it has been solid (always worked). A bigger community would help, and I am finding it hard to find the time to contribute to these articles.

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Adrian Takacs

Infrastructure Engineer

X-Net SolutionsInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 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

Starting Price

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General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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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 8.5

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

D-Link switches are nice switches with many features. They are also less expensive as compared with other options in the market. However, they are not built to handle large amounts of traffic in large enterprise networks or ISPs networks. Cisco Catalyst switches on the other hand are enterprise-grade switches which perform really well under heavy loads.

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Umair Ali Khan

Network Administrator

Pak Suzuki Motor CompanyAutomotive, 1001-5000 employees

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Cisco Routers are one of the best in the market, however they are also very expensive and not suitable for a small deployment or any deployment which requires just a couple of routers. MikroTik on the other hand are less expensive and provides many features that you require for a small scale deployment. they fit in with the budget and do what you need them to.

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Umair Ali Khan

Network Administrator

Pak Suzuki Motor CompanyAutomotive, 1001-5000 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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Cisco Catalyst Switches vs MikroTik Routers and Switches