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Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches vs NETGEAR Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch E...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NETGEAR Switches
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (5th), AV Over IP Switching (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches is 1.2%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETGEAR Switches is 7.5%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
NETGEAR Switches7.5%
Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches1.2%
Other91.3%
Ethernet Switches
 

Q&A Highlights

AJ
Co-Founder at Shellios Technolabs
 

Featured Reviews

MK
Operational Manager at Astrah Technologies
Has enabled reliable access control with good scalability
The primary use case is access control and normal LAN usage, including internet and email. For example, I have deployed the solution in airport scenarios where there are many users The most valuable feature for me is the stability of the switches. They do not hang often and are very reliable,…
Tomas Devriese - PeerSpot reviewer
Teamleader Av Installers at solufak
VLAN support has improved audiovisual installations and secures network traffic for our projects
Our major use cases include audiovisual installations and we mainly use the AV line for that. We work with the VLAN support feature The best things about NETGEAR Switches are the support they provide and the ease of implementation. The ease of installation helps with network performance. It helps…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature for me is the stability of the switches."
"This is a dependable switch which will help you sleep at night."
"The product is stable. It does have only one power supply. They don't have a redundant power supply."
"The most valuable feature for me is the stability of the switches."
"It's easy to extend the stack, We don't use the smaller switches, but it's going well for the rest."
"We are able to customize this solution based on the customer's requirements."
"The new web graphical interface is much better than before. We now have easy access to the command lines. They're all functional."
"The solution doesn't have many proprietary protocols like Cisco's. It mainly uses standard protocols like VRRP (similar to Cisco's HSRP), Spanning Tree, and Rapid Spanning Tree, which can sometimes cause integration issues."
"The interface is comfortable for the new employees of our company. I think it's not a problem because our IT team, with probably only two hundred staff, handles our network well. We've tested our recovery systems, and everything is working fine. I don't remember any accidents or issues on our IT network in the last year."
"You are not limited in terms of stacking ports, and especially, if you're using the 96X as a core switch, the scalability, I could see this being very large. If you're using a type of a hybrid topology with a core switch going out to multiple switch stacks, or something like that, I could see the scalability of this being very good, especially considering the kind of backplane switching capacity on the 96X."
"This switch is Layer 3, so it is a totally managed system."
"For what I used this switch for, it did well."
"The solution helps transfer data."
"NETGEAR Switches have increased the throughput and speed of internal communication, and have improved our network efficiency."
"The most valuable feature is the fact that Insight is cloud-managed. The whole reason behind it is that there is one central place to manage it. You can pre-configure everything and you can get access to it without having to get onto the client's network. That makes it easy to use and deploy."
"Since it has a web interface, it is easy to set up. You don't have to take three years of training somewhere for a lot of money."
 

Cons

"technical support response time is sometimes very slow."
"I could see them possibly creating a more intuitive software. It's very user-friendly, but there are some things that aren't very intuitive when programming the switches."
"The product would be better if it were completely compatible with other switching products."
"We had stability issues with Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches 6250. One issue is with licensing. When migrating from TDM to VoIP/ToIP solutions integrated on the same architecture, Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches don't have the same skill level or follow the same development path as companies like Cisco. They started integrating these solutions later, which is why there's a noticeable difference in advancement."
"There needs to be better integration with the interface."
"I find the CLI hard to use. I wish we could do more in the GUI interface."
"The commands for the switches could be easier as I find them more complex compared to those of Cisco."
"OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches would be improved if cloud-based technology was provided in the Gulf region."
"Lacks switches with additional ports that provide room for new protocols of communications."
"The product's stability has certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"An area for improvement would be creating a wizard that can do a lot of common stuff. Instead of having some manual configuration for common features, they may want to have a single wizard that could be put in place which would let you walk through creating multiple VLANs and different routes between VLANs in a wizard. Then, you wouldn't have to dig in so deep."
"Perhaps in the future, we will have even more different types of switches and be able to fulfill more collections."
"They can improve on the commercial part, specifically the cost, as it is higher than other brands."
"There is a technical problem they can't seem to solve. It doesn't support multicast packets. In layman's terms, Mac computers can't print over the network."
"What I'd like to see is more compatibility with virtual stacking, so that 4300-series switches and 3300-series switches will actually stack together and that virtual switch stacks, themselves, are not limited to just six devices, so that they can create larger loops with more bandwidth and more redundancy."
"The scalability and warranty should also be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing for OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches is a one-time purchase with no additional costs."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is reasonable compared to Aruba and HPE."
"Pricing is cheap compared to other vendors. When we benchmark the tool against Meraki, Cisco, and others, it is usually more affordable."
"The pricing is very good for 10GbE switches and you get a lot of throughput. It is about 60 percent of the costs of other switches from competitive manufacturers, which is really good."
"Insight pricing is okay. It's very competitive. The costs of the hardware and additional services weren't low because Unify is much cheaper, but the costs conformed to the market. When you look at the hardware specs, the price and the warranty, the complete package was much better than any other vendor. If you consider those three main aspects of Netgear Insight and Netgear Insight devices, and you put them next to Ubiquity or Cisco Meraki, or even TP-Link, in our opinion, it's better hardware, it has a better warranty, and for the price you have to pay, it's a pretty good product."
"NETGEAR's new product is definitely more expensive than their standard product line. It's a new product line for them, so I'm hoping with the maturity of the product that those costs will come down. The standard product line is considerably cheaper."
"The product has the best price in the market."
"I sold someone a SonicWall and they had to redo their subscription every year. It was a $300 or $400 subscription they had to pay every year... With NETGEAR... it's only a $10 or $20 subscription per device for the whole year... and you have your license and you have all your support."
"Licensing is always a hassle and a pain point."
"I believe that the pricing is reasonable."
"Another issue, when it comes to NETGEAR's competitors, is that other companies are offering the cloud management at no extra charge, whereas NETGEAR charges for it. You have to pay per-device for licenses."
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Answers from the Community

AJ
Co-Founder at Shellios Technolabs
Feb 15, 2022
Feb 15, 2022
My last experience with Netgear wasn't good but it was a long time ago. It may be better now. As for me, it would be Cisco because it is easier to find network engineer with knowledge of Cisco products and many supervision or orchestration tools will support them well. Regarding my experience, they are reliable assets but the cost might be sometime a good reason to go for something else.
2 out of 4 answers
EK
Partner / Owner at Bimel Elektronik Mamuller Paz. Ltd.
Nov 29, 2021
For an Enterprise? I would definitely go with Cisco. Cisco has a wide range of products to accommodate all present and future needs of an enterprise organization.  Cisco support is very professional in case something goes wrong.  Cisco products are very stable, have lots of features to satisfy every need of an enterprise and in my experience, they don't easily fail. 
RI
Technical Support Engineer at provident technology
Nov 29, 2021
cisco ethernet switches
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
9%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
5%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches?
The new web graphical interface is much better than before. We now have easy access to the command lines. They're all functional.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches?
In terms of pricing, Alcatel is cheaper than Cisco, however, MikroTik is the cheapest. I cannot comment on the pricing reasonability as I am a technical person, and decisions are made by those who ...
What needs improvement with Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches?
The commands for the switches could be easier as I find them more complex compared to those of Cisco.
How do NETGEAR switches compare with Cisco ethernet switches?
NetGear switches have a lot to offer. They have high availability, zero-downtime stacking, L2 and L3 functionality, and are AV-over-IP ready. NetGear switches also have a command line interface and...
Which switches are better - Ubiquiti Unifi or Netgear?
Ubiquiti Unifi offers a great set of features. For starters, it is easy to configure and implement, and also doesn’t require a learning curve because it is easy to use. It is also simple to reconfi...
What do you like most about NETGEAR Switches?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. I have not faced any issues with the product whatsoever.
 

Also Known As

Alcatel-Lucent Ethernet Switches, OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches
NETGEAR Insight Managed Switches, NETGEAR GC Series, NETGEAR M Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bayonette, California State University (CSU), Centre Hospitalier Carcassonne, Centro Universitšrio de Brasilia (UniCEUB), China Tianchen Engineering Corporation Co. LTD, Citta Della Speranza, City of Frankfurt, City of Ogden, City of Vila Franca de Xira
Blaze Networks
Find out what your peers are saying about Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet Switches vs. NETGEAR Switches and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,821 professionals have used our research since 2012.