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Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.3
Arista Networks Platform offers cost-effective solutions with high ROI, saving time and resources in global data center deployments.
Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco Nexus offers stability and efficiency, with long-term cost savings and reliability justifying its initial expense for users.
I saved between five to six hours using Arista Networks Platform, as it takes less time to actually add your APs to the dashboard and deployment is quite fast and easy.
Network Engineer at Castlenet Consulting Limited
I have seen a return on investment from using Arista Networks Platform in terms of fewer employees needed during installation and deployment.
Network Engineer at Castlenet Consulting Limited
In the data center, there is no comparison in terms of technicality or return of investment.
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
Speeding up our response times and reducing errors and incidents with automation and available APIs.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Arista Networks' support is fast, highly rated, responsive, and effective, though documentation could improve, with positive pricing feedback.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Nexus support is praised for expertise and responsiveness, despite high costs, being favored for reliability and assistance.
They provide instant support and maintain commitments regarding replacement products.
CEO/Consultant at CIL
We would rate the customer support as a nine to 9.5 out of ten.
Technical project manager at Castlenet Consulting Limited
All network engineers from the organization were present in the program, and the Arista engineer provided a solution in less than five minutes.
Network Engineer at Castlenet Consulting Limited
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
I would rate the support of Cisco an eight out of ten.
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Arista Networks Platform is scalable, user-friendly, future-proof, but cost-effectiveness varies by deals and regions.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Nexus provides robust scalability and versatility for enterprise networks, despite being costly and having some limitations.
Arista Networks Platform's focus on GPU-based and high-speed switches is a smart move for next-generation AI-based data center solutions.
Network Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Scalability is a key feature of Arista, owing to the possibilities to manage the entire data center network from a single console.
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
We can easily scale up with Arista Networks Platform, as it is not difficult, and they have a platform that encourages scalability.
Technical project manager at Castlenet Consulting Limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Arista Networks Platform is praised for its stability and reliability, with minimal downtime and vulnerabilities, especially in consistent configurations.
Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Nexus is reliable and high-performing, with minor issues, praised for data center use and stability with updates.
Arista is the only IT product that has the minimum vulnerabilities, so it is a very stable product.
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
The amount of failure is low because we have tested a Huawei platform of the same grade beside Arista Networks Platform, and Arista Networks Platform always won.
Director at a tech company with 11-50 employees
I have not had any downtime using Arista Networks Platform.
Network Engineer at Castlenet Consulting Limited
Initially, the stability of Cisco Nexus, particularly with the ACI, was problematic due to unstable codes, requiring replacements.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Arista Networks Platform faces high costs, a complex interface, stability issues, unclear documentation, and needs better integration and features.
Users want Cisco Nexus improvements in GUI, integration, scalability, programmability, cost-efficiency, compatibility, management, and training resources.
Using AI, I can understand how my entire organization operates and what kind of applications are being used, what the peak times are, where there is a bottleneck if any exists.
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
Scalability at every single step has a huge upgrade cost which is required for port mapping, connectivity, and transceivers certified by Arista Networks Platform, then the fabric upgrades from a software firmware level.
Director at a tech company with 11-50 employees
Feature-wise, it addresses most customer requirements.
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The solution is on-premises and stable.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
It might be pretty expensive for other companies.
Director at WAJDA GROUP
 

Setup Cost

Arista Networks is costlier than alternatives like Cisco, with high hardware and licensing expenses, challenging budgets, especially in developing regions.
Cisco Nexus pricing is high but justified by features, with varied licensing options and favorable long-term ownership costs.
Compared to Cisco, Arista routers are significantly cheaper.
CEO/Consultant at CIL
You get a 48 gigs, a 25 Gbps or a 40 Gbps switching fabric at a price of $30-40,000 from Netgear super-fast clusters, whereas Arista Networks Platform is going to cost you three times that.
Director at a tech company with 11-50 employees
Arista products are perceived as costly, especially compared to competitors like Cisco.
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
 

Valuable Features

Arista Networks Platform is favored for its low latency, scalability, and efficient management, ideal for data centers.
Cisco Nexus is praised for its performance, scalability, advanced routing, integration, low latency, automation, security, and redundancy.
Features include plug-and-play auto-discovery, allowing centralized configuration and management.
CEO/Consultant at CIL
The best features Arista Networks Platform offers are the dashboards where you can see all your APs that have been deployed and installed across all locations, making it quite unique to access, manage, and monitor performance from that dashboard.
Technical project manager at Castlenet Consulting Limited
Arista Networks Platform is known for ultra-low latency, having the fastest backplane ever built.
Director at a tech company with 11-50 employees
The VPC feature of Cisco Nexus is great because it provides an active-active way of forwarding the traffic and avoids blocking any of the links.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
I encountered an issue where different models within the same series, the 95308 DC, do not support VPC between the EX series and FX3 series.
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
 

Categories and Ranking

Arista Networks Platform
Ranking in Data Center Networking
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (8th)
Cisco Nexus
Ranking in Data Center Networking
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Data Center Networking category, the mindshare of Arista Networks Platform is 14.9%, down from 15.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 13.2%, down from 19.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Center Networking Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Nexus13.2%
Arista Networks Platform14.9%
Other71.9%
Data Center Networking
 

Featured Reviews

Dibyendu Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at a tech company with 11-50 employees
Ultra-low latency networking has delivered reliable video workflows and critical operations
The support of Arista Networks Platform is quite complex; it is not very easy to configure. It needs a lot of network expertise for token sheddings and different kinds of configurations. It is very difficult to configure because Arista Networks Platform does not have a flexible GUI like Huawei or Netgear; everything is a very CLI kind of mainframe architecture. Scalability at every single step has a huge upgrade cost which is required for port mapping, connectivity, and transceivers certified by Arista Networks Platform, then the fabric upgrades from a software firmware level. Arista Networks Platform should improve commercial aspects to be affordable. There is no path for growth with a perfect score because the focus is more on reducing costs globally.
Fakhar Mahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise83
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arista Networks Platform?
As for the licensing model of Arista Networks Platform, I would describe it as moderate—neither too expensive nor too cheap compared to Cisco.
What needs improvement with Arista Networks Platform?
I found that Arista Networks Platform could improve by introducing a feature that combines configuration for both switches and access points into a single portal. Currently, you need to juggle betw...
What is your primary use case for Arista Networks Platform?
I currently use Arista products, including Arista wireless solutions like CVQ and Agni solutions, which come with a AAA server, as well as ClearPass from Aruba. I am using Arista Networks Platform ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
We are a reseller, and we sell products to our customers.
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
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,...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus?
Cisco Nexus is used in data centers with a simple Nexus OS deployment model. In our environment, we do not use programmability with Cisco Nexus. The switches are used very basically in our infrastr...
 

Also Known As

7000 Series
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Internet Services
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Arista Networks Platform vs. Cisco Nexus and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.