Arista Campus LAN Switches vs Cisco Nexus comparison

Arista and Cisco are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Arista is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.8, while Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4. Arista holds a 4.5% mindshare in LS, compared to Cisco’s 9.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Arista users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Read 8 Arista Campus LAN Switches reviews

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526 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus

Read 108 Cisco Nexus reviews

2,995 Views
1,258 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Cisco Nexus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Arista Campus LAN Switches and Cisco Nexus compete in the network switching market. Cisco Nexus generally has an advantage due to its advanced capabilities, while Arista is appealing for its cost-effectiveness and support.

Features: Arista Campus LAN Switches excel in programmability, easy integration with cloud systems, and a stable operating system. Cisco Nexus offers comprehensive security features, scalability, and modular flexibility, making it a versatile choice.

Room for Improvement: Arista could improve in offering more advanced security features, enhancing its scalability, and expanding its feature set to match competitors. Cisco Nexus might benefit from simplifying initial setup, reducing cost complexity, and streamlining the integration processes with third-party solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Arista is recognized for its straightforward deployment process and robust customer service, ensuring hassle-free integration. Cisco Nexus, although offering extensive support options, can present complex deployment scenarios requiring more technical expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Arista Campus LAN Switches are known for competitive setup costs and favorable ROI due to lower operational expenses. Cisco Nexus might have higher initial costs owing to extensive features but justifies the expense through long-term performance and value, often resulting in higher ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus

March 2026

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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 Nexus

Ranking in LAN Switching

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

108

Ranking in other categories

Data Center Networking (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Arista Campus LAN Switches is 4.5%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 9.0%, up from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

LAN Switching Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Nexus	9.0%
Arista Campus LAN Switches	4.5%
Other	86.5%

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.

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Fakhar Mahmood

Sr. Network Administrator at i2c

Migration between data centers has strengthened core connectivity and simplified segmentation

The biggest problems during migration were corporate issues, including dependencies on other devices such as F5, HSMs, and firewalls from Palo Alto. Everything was connected over the core switches, which made this a quite difficult part to manage and to onboard the teams and to understand the impact of the migration. We encountered an issue where we have two data centers, and unknowingly we were configuring the devices with the same VPC number on both devices. By doing that, we were not able to terminate the lease lines over those core switches. According to Cisco, we had to change the VPC number of one of the data center's core switches since they are in a VPC. We are still waiting, and it has been more than five to six years just to change the VPC number and migrate back the lease line. Now we are having cabin switches for the lease line and then the core switch. That VPC number issue was quite surprising for us. However, we have a very frequent issue with Cisco Nexus, particularly with the SFPs. Every time a port or the SFP heats up, it gets faulty. We have almost sixteen Nexus switches per data center. In a year, we experience one or two port issues per annum. We have standard Equinix data centers with standard installations, but somehow the temperature is always maintained and there is no ducting, yet the ports and the SFPs heat up or become faulty. This is a very frequent issue with the SFP-based port.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Software Defined switch architecture, runs optimized 2-tier network instead of traditional 3-tier network (Core, Distribution and Access) gives you efficiency and savings."

"This solution provides all of the routing and searching features that we need."

"The return on investment for this solution is very good, as it is very practical and versatile."

"This is a very stable solution."

"It's easy to use."

"This solution has saved us both time and money because we now have the ability to control all of these telephony devices that are deployed nationwide."

"The scalability of Cisco Nexus is good. We've had them for the entire lifetime. We've never had to upgrade them yet."

"The product has allowed us to create one holistic view for our entire organization."

"This is a powerful device and I can get good bandwidth."

More Cisco Nexus pros

Cons

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

"Documentation is often scant."

"Cisco Nexus still needs more stability."

"In comparison to iPad, Nexus 7 has a fewer number of apps for entertainment."

"I would like to see a central management solution in order to have all of the equipment in one place."

"There are limitations on some of the lower level 9K solutions where you can't do the same things that you would normally be able to do, like for instance the number of static maps that you can configure on it."

"For a very small subset, Cisco Nexus caused port flapping within the applications, which was weird."

"The initial setup of the Cisco Nexus platform takes a long time. It's a complex system because we have a lot of security layers."

"They need to understand that when we call them and have an issue, it's our production and sometimes they want us to do repairs that would cause other issues."

More Cisco Nexus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"If you compare Cisco hardware to any other vendors, such as HPE, they are more expensive. There is a license to use the solution. If my customer's licenses are about to expire I receive notification from Cisco, this is very helpful."

"Licensing is annual or every three years. We were one of the big customers, and we used to get good prices, but the cost of the support can be improved."

"Every Cisco product is more expensive than competitors on the market, which is just a fact, but from my perspective, it is worth it."

"The license on a yearly basis is $200,000."

"We have a virtual license."

"The solution should be more cost-effective in general."

"We consider Juniper switches to be more affordable."

"We have a three-year subscription for our licensing fees."

More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Educational Organization

Marketing Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Marketing Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

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	19
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	83

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...

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What needs improvement with Arista Campus LAN Switches?

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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...

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What do you like most about Cisco Nexus?

The product's initial setup phase is very easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?

We are a reseller, and we sell products to our customers.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 21% of the time

Juniper QFabric vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco FabricPath vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 12% of the time

HPE ProCurve vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 11% of the time

More Arista Campus LAN Switches Competitors

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 12% of the time

Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 8% of the time

Juniper QFabric vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

LAN Switching

March 2026

Download Arista Campus LAN Switches product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus

March 2026

Download Cisco Nexus product report

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

The Cisco Nexus family of switches is designed to meet the stringent requirements of the next-generation data center. Not simply bigger or faster, these switches offer the following characteristics: infrastructure that can be scaled cost-effectively and that helps you increase energy, budget, and resource efficiency, transport that can navigate the transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet and unified fabric and can also handle architectural changes such as virtualization, Web 2.0 applications, and cloud computing and operational continuity to meet your need for an environment where system availability is assumed and maintenance windows are rare if not totally extinct.

Cisco

Sample Customers

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

Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins

Buyer's Guide

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus

March 2026

Free Report: Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus

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