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Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus 9000 Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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 Networks Platform
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
8th
Ranking in Data Center Networking
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
21st
Ranking in Data Center Networking
9th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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
Has consistently supported high availability with reliable performance and minimal disruption
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series and the routers are good, but the FMC or FTDs still need some improvement. We have Palo Alto firewalls and Next-Generation Firewalls in our environment. In comparison to the main firewall, we moved from Cisco FTDs to Palo Alto. We still have FTDs in our environment, but the majority of the firewalls have been moved to Palo Alto. They are more user-friendly, give more visibility, and are more efficient. The performance is better than Cisco. With the new features, Cisco is having some improvement for the FTD. I am currently evaluating the FTDs. The new version has better features like the encrypted visibility engine and user-based changes in FMCs, and other things are quite useful for us. FTDs do have limitations and other issues. We communicated that limitation and feature support to the Cisco account manager. We do have support for the devices. We currently have a weekly call with Cisco and they are making progress regarding new versions of the FMCs and introducing new features. The performance of deployment has improved quite a bit compared to four or five years ago.

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 features of the Arista Networks Platform are the EVPN and VXLAN. It has comprehensive features."
"Arista Networks Platform is known for ultra-low latency, having the fastest backplane ever built, delivering endurance and ultra-low latency, and it is the best fabric for low latency and high bandwidth traffic, being a monopoly in that aspect."
"Arista Networks Platform is comfortable, easy to deploy, and easy to manage, with non-blocking technology. Additionally, it has a useful CloudVision platform and automation capabilities."
"The most valuable features of Arista include low latency, scalability, and sustainability of the products."
"It provides telemetry and visibility for many metrics that are not supported by most of the other vendors."
"Arista Networks Platform is comfortable, easy to deploy, and easy to manage, with non-blocking technology, and it has a useful CloudVision platform and automation capabilities."
"The most valuable features of Arista include low latency, scalability, and sustainability of the products."
"The biggest advantages in Arista Networks Platform for me over the past three years are that it works very well, it is not that noisy (I modified it with silent fans), it was less bulky than Cisco, and it worked very well because it has an extra for a more precise clock, which also helps my use case."
"The stability and reliability of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series are robust, and once you put it on, it does not just fail; that takes a long time, maybe even years."
"We are using the core capabilities of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Ethernet switches, and it is performing well."
"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is quite a complex machine, but we are using a very simple configuration with basic Nexus switching, and we don't have many issues with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series at the moment in our present infrastructure."
"Performance has been great with no abnormal behaviors detected, and the network remains stable even in failover scenarios, supporting vast environments with high availability."
"RealPresence works effectively."
"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very durable and very reliable, and there has never been any issue with it."
 

Cons

"Some new features are needed."
"Its price can be better."
"The solution is quite expensive. One of the negative aspects of it is the pricing."
"We have decided not to expand the Arista Networks Platform because of some of the issues we have had."
"I think there is a need for improvement in the area of their VXLAN/EVPN capability but their current solution is great regardless but may be not very scalable for a global deployment."
"Arista is very expensive."
"The solution needs to improve their product range."
"The cost of Arista Networks Platform is high; it is more expensive than other networking solutions."
"Cost-wise, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very expensive."
"I would rate the technical support for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series an eight out of ten. This rating is not because of their lack of expertise, but just the assignment period."
"We find that Cisco has been left behind by the other vendors. The other vendors have adopted new technology, and we find Cisco lagging behind."
"The SFP modules we are using have had issues. We have Cisco modules, but they frequently heat up or there are packet error issues."
"For Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches, I think we need to work on the HSRP. Whenever it flaps or something happens, it creates an issue."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Specific tools definitely require a license for the subscription. But we are not using these tools in our environment. In terms of licensing, you need to spend approximately $10,000 per month."
"The price of the Arista Networks Platform could be less expensive for the hardware and license."
"It is pretty pricey for a networking platform. It is on par with Cisco."
"Cost wise, Arista Networks Platform is more expensive than other networking solutions."
"I remember that when our customers were offered the Arista Networks Platform, they used a checklist to compare the prices between Arista and Cisco for their requirements, and found that the prices were almost the same."
"The customer price for an Arista router is approximately $7,000 USD, while Cisco's is around $18,000."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten where ten is high price and one is low price."
"Arista is very expensive. Not everybody is in a position to spend $70,000 to $80,000 for one switch."
Information not available
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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%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise12
No data available
 

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 needs improvement with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
For Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches, I think we need to work on the HSRP. Whenever it flaps or something happens, it creates an issue. That is the only thing. The HSRP flapping is the issue. Whene...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series serves as a core router and core switch for users, and provides interconnectivity between the core switch and the access switch, as well as remote access switch for smaller ...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
For the advanced policy-driven approach, we have a firewall already. I have not yet worked on the overlay technology support in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series, but I have worked a lot on the core capabili...
 

Also Known As

7000 Series
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Internet Services
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Arista Networks Platform vs. Cisco Nexus 9000 Series and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.