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Cisco Catalyst Switches pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco

4.3 out of 5

176 reviews
95% willing to recommend

1,793 followers

Pros & Cons summary

Cisco Catalyst Switches are renowned for their stability, reliability, and excellent scalability, supporting growth with fast data transfer and PoE capabilities. Users appreciate responsive technical support, but they criticize high costs, complex licensing, and limited cloud and mobile integration. Catalyst Switches need enhanced programmability and vendor compatibility to meet tech buyers' expectations. Their robust performance suits business needs, yet improvements in open-source capabilities and third-party integration are necessary.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Cisco Catalyst Switches provide exceptional stability with no downtime reported over extensive use.

The switches are known for their ease of configuration, simplifying deployment and management.

The scalability of Cisco Catalyst Switches is highly regarded, supporting large stacks and networks with ease.

Cisco Catalyst Switches have superior PoE capabilities, essential for powering devices like WAPs and security cameras.

Cisco's technical support is distinguished by its responsiveness and effectiveness, enhancing user satisfaction.

CONS

Cisco Catalyst Switches need improvements in cloud services, mobile software, and machine learning capabilities.

Pricing for Cisco Catalyst Switches is higher compared to competitors and could be more cost-effective.

There is a complex licensing structure for Cisco Catalyst Switches that requires simplification.

Stability issues have been noted in newer models of Cisco Catalyst Switches, with room for enhancements.

Compatibility with third-party products and standard security features for Cisco Catalyst Switches require enhancement.

Cisco Catalyst Switches Pros review quotes

RK

System Administrator at Lovely Professional University

Jul 27, 2020

The ability to configure throughput is very flexible and improved the performance of our systems.

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CA

Curtis Anderson

Ceo & President at TNL

Feb 12, 2022

We use the VLANs to separate library, office, and individual apartments. With some of the reporting that receive, we're able to take and track down where people like to put in their own wireless routers. Sometimes they will take a DSL modem from AT&T that they brought from home, hook it in backward, and it will give rogue addresses causing issues.

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reviewer2330706

Network Administrator at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 15, 2024

This solution has a pretty good rate of not causing unexpected behavior or failing. We're using maybe 900 switches right now. And, rarely, if ever, something fails, it's dependable.

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Cisco Catalyst Switches

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Learn what your peers think about Cisco Catalyst Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.

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VA

Senior Network Engineer at High Frequency Trading

Jun 28, 2020

They have a robust monitoring system.

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AO

OSSENI Adé Adam

Senior Network Engineer & Technical Instructor at Improtech

Jun 25, 2020

We have dealt with Cisco's technical support in the past. They were especially helpful and very polite. They are always there if we need them and their insights are always excellent. I would say that we have been satisfied with the level of support we've gotten so far.

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MM

Senior Infrastructure Solutions Specialist at Fiber Misr

Nov 3, 2021

Cisco comes with built-in software access for network devices.

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reviewer1331349

IT infrastructure manager at a legal firm with 51-200 employees

Apr 16, 2020

The biggest advantage of having this solution is that it is easy to find engineers, and they are cheaper than hiring HP engineers.

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reviewer1548180

Network Engineer at Seagate Technology

Apr 9, 2021

The quality of a Cisco switch is very high. They are extremely stable.

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Loris Signoracci

Senior System Engineer at Itworks srl

Aug 26, 2021

I like the management of streaming both audio and video.

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Presales Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Aug 23, 2018

If we are providing a switching solution, it's not just switching, it's a whole solution with DNA. That is where the whole concept of Network Management and Network Assurance comes in. So Catalyst plays a big role in putting everything together and providing a whole solution to the customer.

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Cisco Catalyst Switches Cons review quotes

RK

System Administrator at Lovely Professional University

Jul 27, 2020

Cisco forces end-users to accept billing for some capabilities or services that they may not want.

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AI

Al Faruq Ibna Nazim

Head of Technology at Computer Services Ltd.

Aug 19, 2018

I have had a little hiccup working with Catalyst switches. They used a few power integration features but I'm not sure they really resulted in much power saving. But, it caused cross-vendor equipment trouble.

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CA

Curtis Anderson

Ceo & President at TNL

Feb 12, 2022

I use the Cisco Catalyst Switches command-line interface(CLI) a lot out in the field, but there are some web interfaces features that are available that I haven't used very much. I'm more comfortable with the CLI, but the web interfaces are very lacking.

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Cisco Catalyst Switches

Free Report: Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Cisco Catalyst Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.

851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer2330706

Network Administrator at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 15, 2024

First of all, there are some features that take a long time to get implemented, and other vendors have them for a long time before them. For example, it took a long time to have a way to commit change with the timer, so it gets undone if the user doesn't accept the change after it's done. Like, having to say the changes be done, and everything works fine. In the end, everything works fine, but it didn't exist. That's just an example of stuff that came late to Catalyst.

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VA

Senior Network Engineer at High Frequency Trading

Jun 28, 2020

The biggest issue we are having is with bugs and memory loss, which occurs when developing the IOS.

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AO

OSSENI Adé Adam

Senior Network Engineer & Technical Instructor at Improtech

Jun 25, 2020

The user interface needs improvement. Meraki has a much nicer UI. Cisco could learn a lot by looking at them. It might make them a bit more user friendly.

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MM

Senior Infrastructure Solutions Specialist at Fiber Misr

Nov 3, 2021

Cisco is dedicated to providing their customers with the latest technology, but it comes with a price. It's expensive when compared to competitors' products.

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reviewer1331349

IT infrastructure manager at a legal firm with 51-200 employees

Apr 16, 2020

I would like to see better compatibility between Cisco and other vendors.

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reviewer1548180

Network Engineer at Seagate Technology

Apr 9, 2021

Cisco should work to lower its costs. It's quite expensive right now.

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Loris Signoracci

Senior System Engineer at Itworks srl

Aug 26, 2021

I think that the price should be cheaper and they should include at least one year of basic service for technical support for each product, and not just the 90 days from the time of purchase.

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Product Categories

Product Categories

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