Arista Campus LAN Switches vs Cisco Catalyst Switches comparison

Arista and Cisco are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Arista is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3, while Cisco is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. Arista holds a 4.4% mindshare in LS, compared to Cisco’s 22.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Arista users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Read 8 Arista Campus LAN Switches reviews

395 Views
395 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Catalyst Switches

Read 178 Cisco Catalyst Switches reviews

5,802 Views
2,959 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Cisco Catalyst Switches

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Arista Campus LAN Switches and Cisco Catalyst Switches compete in the networking industry. Cisco has the upper hand for its extensive support and advanced features, while Arista excels in automation and customer service.

Features: Arista offers unmatched automation and programmability, centralized management through CloudVision Portal, and scalability with up to 256x10GbE ports. Cisco Catalyst Switches provide robust security features, PoE for seamless integration of devices, and advanced Layer 3 capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Arista could improve in providing more comprehensive documentation and expanding deployment scenarios. Additionally, enhancements in security features would benefit users aiming for comprehensive protection. Cisco could work on simplifying its interface and reducing initial deployment complexity, and making its support resources more navigable.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Arista is praised for straightforward deployment and highly effective customer support. Cisco, while having a complex deployment procedure, compensates with extensive support tools and documentation, simplifying troubleshooting for many users.

Pricing and ROI: Arista presents a cost-effective solution with competitive pricing and favorable ROI due to lower setup costs. Cisco, with its higher initial costs, justifies its expense with long-term ROI through feature-rich, secure networking solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst Switches Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst Switches

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Ranking in LAN Switching

8th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Catalyst Switches

Ranking in LAN Switching

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

178

Ranking in other categories

Ethernet Switches (5th), Data Center Networking (2nd), AV Over IP Switching (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Arista Campus LAN Switches is 4.4%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Switches is 22.8%, down from 30.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

LAN Switching Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Catalyst Switches	22.8%
Arista Campus LAN Switches	4.4%
Other	72.8%

LAN Switching

Featured Reviews

Denis Malinovtsev

Chief Technology Officer at ictbit

Unified monitoring has transformed campus deployments and provides rapid EVPN-VXLAN rollouts

Regarding improvements to Arista Campus LAN Switches, nothing comes to mind about the switches themselves; they are really fast and have all the technologies and protocols that exist in the market. However, on the management system, I would improve it because as a network engineer, I want a chatbot that can communicate in a native language with the monitoring system to get answers regarding my network faults. There are no problems particularly with the product, but there is room for improvement regarding licensing and the chatbot for all Arista products.

Read full review

Arun Giri

Unit Nos at Orange

Reliable support boosts confidence while initial setup complexities highlight improvement areas

Challenges I've encountered mostly involve the RMA part for hardware replacement, which doesn't happen regularly, but sometimes I face challenges due to limited parts in India; they offer different model devices as a stopgap arrangement. It's quite difficult to specify features I would want to see in future updates because that varies from model to model. I would definitely recommend Cisco Catalyst Switches to other users. We do maintenance for Cisco Catalyst Switches. For maintenance, we usually need three people from different regions working as a single team; our engineers handle both projects and maintenance, so there isn't a specific engineer just for maintenance. I work with firewalls and next-generation firewalls. Overall, I would rate the solution as an eight out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"QoS is the most valuable feature because our clients work with VOIP and Critical applications."

"The technology is scalable as much as you want."

"I use the solution for connectivity in data centers and LANs, providing Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity based on network needs."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its stability because Arista falls in an industry that is very similar to Cisco."

"The most winning feature of Arista Campus LAN Switches is their management, specifically CloudVision, along with features like comparing changes and diagnosing problems quickly with telemetry and network visualization."

"The CloudVision Portal allows us to centrally manage all of our Arista products."

"The feature sets are pretty cool. They've got almost everything that the competition offers."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco equipment is reliability."

"One good feature is UPOE. Another is having a built-in controller, the customer doesn't have to ask for another controller. For example, you get a built-in controller with the C650. And two-port is one of the premium factors from Cisco."

"The product is reliable."

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

"Cisco support is very good and responsive."

"A very expandable solution."

"The solution highly scalable."

"The pricing is quite good."

More Cisco Catalyst Switches pros

Cons

"I do think they could improve their licensing model. Today, I need to pay for a license, for a switch, for support, and it costs money; it is not cheap."

"I would like to see a version available with eight or sixteen ports."

"The complex setup phase is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"We have to renew the license every three years, which can be a challenge for customers. Arista, like other vendors, now follows a license-based system."

"I think there's still room for improvement. Arista Campus LAN Switches are not highly scalable as they are hardware-based. If hardware requirements exceed capacity, the product needs to be changed, which can impact service."

"It would be ideal if the solution was less expensive."

"One of the issues that we have been faced with here in Brazil is that we don't have any list times for delivery."

"Its price should be improved. It is very pricey."

"I can't use older Cisco devices with newer versions of the controller or switches. For example, if a switch was manufactured in 2014, I can't use it with a controller made in 2019. I have to change the switch so that I can upgrade my network or my devices. I don't have the option to update the version I have on the image of the AP or the controller."

"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."

"The tool is not user-friendly."

"These switches should have better compatibility with software-defined technology."

"Any improvements that they make should be in the wireless area of the product."

"Cisco Catalyst Switches is an expensive solution and its price could be improved."

"The solution could improve by having a video IP feature."

More Cisco Catalyst Switches cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is not that good, but our clients value the solution despite the price."

"The only licensing costs are for CloudVision, although the upfront price of the device is not cheap."

"They are expensive."

"Could always be cheaper."

"The product is quite expensive."

"They are a little bit expensive. We are a public institution, so we go through other traders, and sometimes, they put in their own surplus price because it is a government contract. Cisco products are expensive, especially when you compare them to Huawei."

"This is expensive, even when compared to competitors' products."

"The licensing, and maintenance fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"There needs to be some improvement with the Cisco DNA licensing activation process, it is difficult at the moment."

"The licenses are definitely expensive. There is a need to make annual payments towards the subscription or licensing costs attached to the solution."

More Cisco Catalyst Switches pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which LAN Switching solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	79
Midsize Enterprise	29
Large Enterprise	79

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arista Campus LAN Switches?

Regarding pricing, it is not cheap. While it is an enterprise solution, comparing it to low-level switches like Fortinet and Netgear, it is much more expensive. However, comparing it to Cisco and J...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Arista Campus LAN Switches?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Arista Campus LAN Switches?

I work as a consultant and integrator, using Arista Networks platform in my customers' networks. I deal with switches by Arista, which is mostly what we use Arista for. I am familiar with Arista Ca...

See all answers

Would you recommend replacing a Cisco Catalyst Switch by a D-link one?

Hello Mesfin It depends on the real scenario, the cisco 2960 is a very good device and they usually have routing functions but there are many different models within the same 2960 line, and on the ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco Catalyst Switches?

We are a vendor for the healthcare sector, especially hospitals, and normally, we use a full Cisco solution for stability, especially for the stability of the Access Points and the security of swit...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Switches?

For pricing satisfaction, I'd say it will be six to seven because Cisco usually is costly compared to other vendors. Regarding pricing, there is indeed room for improvement.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Nexus vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 26% of the time

Juniper QFabric vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 22% of the time

Cisco FabricPath vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 13% of the time

HPE ProCurve vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 12% of the time

More Arista Campus LAN Switches Competitors

Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Catalyst Switches

Compared 13% of the time

ExtremeSwitching vs Cisco Catalyst Switches

Compared 6% of the time

TP-Link Omada Switches vs Cisco Catalyst Switches

Compared 6% of the time

Ubiquiti UniFi Switches vs Cisco Catalyst Switches

Compared 6% of the time

HPE ProCurve vs Cisco Catalyst Switches

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Catalyst Switches Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

LAN Switching

January 2026

Download Arista Campus LAN Switches product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Catalyst Switches

January 2026

Download Cisco Catalyst Switches product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cisco Catalyst, Catalyst

Overview

Arista Campus LAN Switches are the perfect network solution for your most demanding workloads.With native support for VMware Virtualization and hundreds of Linux applications integrated into hardware platforms designed to meet the stringent power and cooling requirements of today's most demanding data centers, Arista delivers the most efficient and best performing 10Gb Ethernet platforms.

Arista

Cisco Catalyst Switches are a reliable and scalable network switching and routing solution, focusing on VLANs and VLAN switching. They are used as access switches, distribution switches, and core switches in various environments, deployed on-premises, and used for long connections. The switches are easy to configure, install, and upgrade and offer good pricing.

The most valuable features include warranty and firmware support, stability, security, good performance, flexibility, etc. The Cisco Catalyst Switches have provided a stable solution for the organizations and are widely used, trusted, and well-known in the networking industry.

Cisco

Sample Customers

University of Winchester, AWE, picturemaxx, Medical Mutual, Leonix, CloudEra, National Physical Laboratory, Tri-State G&T, AIS, Morph, SingTel, SDSC, BBC

Afni, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Del Papa Distributing, Explorer Pipeline, Mindtree, Omaha World Herald, Radio 538, Sony Corporation, Telecom Italia, Telenor Arena

Buyer's Guide

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst Switches

December 2025

Free Report: Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst Switches

Find out what your peers are saying about Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst Switches and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst Switches report.

See our list of best LAN Switching vendors.

We monitor all LAN Switching reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.