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Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus 9000 Series comparison

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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
4th
Ranking in Data Center Networking
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
12th
Ranking in Data Center Networking
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Arista Networks Platform is 3.8%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is 1.0%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Arista Networks Platform3.8%
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series1.0%
Other95.2%
Ethernet Switches
 

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.
AS
Technical Marketing Engineer Hybrid Cloud Infrastructures at NetApp
Policy-driven data centers have delivered low-latency connectivity for critical applications
The most critical and important feature in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is VPC. Apart from VPC, there are many other features in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series that stand out as advantages. You can apply access control lists on that. You can do Layer 3 capabilities. You can configure HSRP. You can implement VRFs. You can isolate the L3 network within your data center. It has a lot of features including network segmentation capabilities. You can apply a lot of security hardening and manage the access on the switches through auditing to see who is doing what and restrict access based on the network admin role. These are great features. The overlay technology support in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is good for large-scale deployment where you are going to build something like a hyperscaler. You need more network segments, and with VXLAN, you can definitely build a large fabric with those Nexus switches.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Great latency (bundled with great L1/L2/L3 features) depending on platforms."
"If you have a large network, it's one of the easiest solutions to deploy and manage."
"I like the spine as a leaf model and low latency. The hardware is robust and meets expected latency in all environments, mainly if you belong to the media or trading industry. For multicast-based solutions, Arista is number one."
"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."
"Arista Networks Platform has really boosted our organization to the extent that our organization does not want to think about any other platform except Arista in terms of access points and switches."
"The most valuable feature is the Linux shell, which is useful for troubleshooting or capturing traffic."
"The product's implementation phase was easy."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"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."
"According to the customers, they are not utilizing even 40% of the switches because the capacity is very large."
"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very durable and very reliable, and there has never been any issue with it."
"RealPresence works effectively."
"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."
"The features for manageability and visibility are impressive."
"We are using the core capabilities of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Ethernet switches, and it is performing well."
"Performance has been great with no abnormal behaviors detected, and the network remains stable even in failover scenarios, supporting vast environments with high availability."
 

Cons

"Arista Networks Platform should focus on improving the compatibility or integration with Cisco solutions."
"The documentation did not explain that we could not vary the speed between ports that are in the same block. For example, we cannot have 1G and 10G on the neighboring ports; all four ports have to be 1G or 10G, which was very annoying for us when we realized that we needed to change the configuration and the cabling that we had already prepared."
"My company does face issues in terms of interoperability when it comes to the product, making it an area that needs to be fixed."
"Arista Networks is currently less popular as they were initially more focused on data centers than campus networks. They should expand further into campus networks."
"The pricing is a little bit higher than Cisco and Juniper, and pricing is the concern."
"The stability of this solution needs to be improved as part of the next upgrade."
"The overall price of the Arista Networks Platform is expensive. It should be reduced."
"Arista is very expensive."
"If I have a Juniper and want to uplink with Cisco, there could be some configuration challenges."
"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."
"Even though it is expensive, I am not sure about the return on investment. It is expensive, and you will need to pay for subscription fees that also are not cheap."
"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."
"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."
"In terms of automation with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series, it could be better."
"Cost-wise, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very expensive."
"The potential for improvement lies in the licensing aspect, which is somewhat confusing. The perpetual and subscription licensing is a concern."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is an annual license required to use the Arista Networks Platform."
"Network devices are generally expensive. However, during the evaluation, Arista was the most inexpensive vendor."
"Cost wise, Arista Networks Platform is more expensive than other networking solutions."
"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."
"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 customer price for an Arista router is approximately $7,000 USD, while Cisco's is around $18,000."
"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product price as seven out of ten."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
23%
Outsourcing Company
17%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arista Networks Platform?
The initial setup cost is high compared to others, and I find the initial setup cost to be very high.
What needs improvement with Arista Networks Platform?
Arista Networks Platform could improve its command line management. Coming from a Cisco background, the adjustment period was challenging. While similar in some areas, the AOS concept, especially a...
What is your primary use case for Arista Networks Platform?
I have worked with deploying Arista Networks Platform in data center environments, particularly for spine and leaf architectures. The configurations involved Zero Touch Provisioning, which went ver...
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
If we speak about the negative side, the prices are something that could be improved. It is expensive compared with other competitors, about 40% higher than any other vendor. This is the main point...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series focuses on serving the data center primarily, not the endpoints. The focus is on how to serve your data center, perform the segmentation that you need inside your data cente...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
The policy-driven approach in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series can be understood through the integration with Cisco DNA. One of the main features or strength points that Cisco Nexus 9000 Series has is the f...
 

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: September 2026.
914,109 professionals have used our research since 2012.