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Aviatrix vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
8.1
Aviatrix reduces network management effort, enhances productivity, and improves ROI with multi-cloud functionality and decreased downtime.
Sentiment score
5.5
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN improves ROI through cost savings, efficient management, and scalability, achieving breakeven within a year.
Management has become significantly easier through Aviatrix controller.
Sr. Consutant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Fewer resources were needed for operations, along with faster deployments of around 50% improvement.
Software Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
I save time with the multi-cloud functionality that Aviatrix provides.
DevOps Lead at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
With Zero Trust provisioning via the Catalyst Center and Meraki dashboard, new branch offices are configured in hours instead of weeks, freeing engineering teams to focus on strategic initiatives rather than manual deployment.
Network engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
They are now back to do that with the remainder of their company, so they've realized the value in 12 months and are willing to invest in the remainder of their organization.
Information Technology Consultant at Island Networks
There are many scenarios where we replace MPLS with the internet because now we have the flexibility to migrate to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and we do not need private connectivity such as MPLS.
Regional Manager at Orange
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.2
Aviatrix customer service receives mixed reviews; users highlight inadequate support, improvement needed in training, and helpful online forums.
Sentiment score
7.4
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's support is praised for expertise but occasionally criticized for response times and needing more innovation.
They are responsive, and their core technical team sometimes participates on calls when we need support.
Sr. Consutant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The customer support of Aviatrix has been strong and responsive.
Software Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
The principal third-level support is very good.
Technology supervisor at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
I would consider Cisco support a 10 out of 10.
Information Technology Consultant at Island Networks
I would rate Cisco's support, their customer service, and technical support as excellent.
Solution Architect at Sonda S.A.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Aviatrix excels in scalability, supporting seamless multi-cloud expansion across AWS, Azure, and OCI, popular among medium to enterprise businesses.
Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers scalability and centralized management, supporting large deployments across multiple locations despite some pricing concerns.
As your cloud environments increase, and you add additional cloud environments, such as from AWS to Azure or OCI, it scales effectively.
Sr. Consutant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It supports multi-region and multi-cloud expansion with ease using its transit gateway architecture and hub-and-spoke design.
Software Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
From what I experienced and learned, I think Aviatrix's scalability is quite good.
Student at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Its controller architecture is highly matured, making it one of the most valuable and reliable LAN platforms for large enterprises.
Network engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Cisco SD-WAN is highly scalable and can be expanded to more than 10,000 sites.
Technical Consultant at Vertex Techno Solutions (B) Pvt Ltd
The ease of configuration and features like zero-touch provisioning enhance the scalability of Cisco SD-WAN, especially in disaster recovery situations.
Engineer at Routz
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Aviatrix is highly stable and reliable, especially in production and multi-cloud environments, despite some initial setup challenges.
Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is praised for robust stability, superior hardware, seamless integration, minimal downtime, and reliable performance.
Based on my studies and hands-on labs, Aviatrix is quite stable.
Student at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
After that, I haven't faced any Aviatrix issues and it's pretty stable.
full stack developer intern at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
For example, with zero-touch provisioning, if we are adding new sites, we can do it with a few simple clicks.
Regional Manager at Orange
While some software-related issues and bugs were encountered, they did not cause the whole environment to crash.
Engineer at Routz
A simple issue in the control connections between the fabric causes numerous complexities.
Network Manager at HPCL
 

Room For Improvement

Aviatrix should enhance security, improve UI, expand support, optimize costs, and provide better training and documentation for growth.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN must reduce costs, simplify licensing, enhance security, and improve interface, support, stability, and integration.
If Aviatrix provides more detailed documentation on the technical infrastructure, it would be more helpful for customers to evaluate, learn, and gain knowledge about the platform.
Sr. Consutant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
While Aviatrix is powerful, more built-in recommendations for cost efficiency and resource usage would help teams manage budgets more effectively.
Software Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
It works more efficiently in a Mac system versus a Windows, so I think they should improve on the Windows one.
full stack developer intern at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Now, they change frequently, making it difficult to obtain long-term support.
Technology supervisor at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Better documentation with real-world examples, improved third-party integration, and more detailed monitoring dashboards would make Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN even more effective.
Network engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Including more features like integrating with Splunk for monitoring vulnerabilities would help eliminate the need for other SOC solutions.
Technical Consultant at Vertex Techno Solutions (B) Pvt Ltd
 

Setup Cost

Aviatrix's pricing model, while complex and costly, offers human resource savings and justifies costs with its features.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is considered costly, with high setup expenses despite its enterprise features, leading customers to explore alternatives.
I find that the pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Aviatrix are on the higher side.
Sr. Consutant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
With Aviatrix, pricing is on the higher side but justified by the features and performance.
Software Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
The setup cost is a little bit expensive.
DevOps Lead at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Its pricing is justifiable due to the comprehensive solution it offers.
Technical Consultant at Vertex Techno Solutions (B) Pvt Ltd
It is also relatively cost-effective for smaller businesses when using the Meraki version.
Engineer at Routz
The pricing of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is rated between eight and nine out of ten, where ten is the most expensive.
Technology supervisor at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
 

Valuable Features

Aviatrix offers seamless multi-cloud integration, centralized management, and security with features enhancing efficiency and reducing operational overhead.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers centralized management, security, scalability, real-time visibility, and operational efficiency with robust support and API integration.
Aviatrix has positively impacted my organization by making management and administration easier, allowing us to manage all the cloud infrastructure from a single console.
Sr. Consutant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The deep network visibility feature gave us end-to-end traffic insights across clouds, including flow-level data and real-time monitoring, helping us quickly identify bottlenecks, detect misconfigurations, and troubleshoot issues much faster.
Software Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
The centralized cloud networking visibility and control is why I wanted to advise this solution.
DevOps Lead at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
It also provides robust security features, including port security, analysis, mirroring, and multiple other security solutions.
Technology supervisor at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has integrated security features which include base firewall, URL filtering, IPS, and secure segmentation.
Solution Architect at Sonda S.A.
The centralized dashboard gives me a clear view of all branch sites, making it easy to manage and monitor tunnel health, bandwidth usage, and device status from one place.
Network engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Aviatrix
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Networking (SDN) (3rd)
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (6th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Aviatrix is designed for Software Defined Networking (SDN) and holds a mindshare of 6.4%, up 4.6% compared to last year.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, on the other hand, focuses on Network Management Applications, holds 2.3% mindshare, down 2.7% since last year.
Software Defined Networking (SDN) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aviatrix6.4%
Meraki SD-WAN10.0%
Cisco ACI8.9%
Other74.7%
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN2.3%
Cisco DNA Center7.2%
DX Spectrum5.5%
Other85.0%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Sr. Consutant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Centralized console has streamlined multi‑cloud management and supports automated operations
Apart from the centralized management console, Aviatrix gives the additional advantage or simplifies the way we manage the cloud environments. When it comes to troubleshooting or more networking-related issues, the native cloud solution has limited options available within the cloud environment. Aviatrix provides those additional benefits to manage effectively when managing troubleshooting or issues. Aviatrix is making our day-to-day job easier and also saving a lot of time because it gives options for cloud-to-cloud peering, as well as a transit hub and spoke architecture. It simplifies how we manage the multi-cloud environment through the single console, and the connectivity options become very easier. Aviatrix supports the automation platform. It supports Infrastructure as Code (IAC), which makes deployment faster with automation. This reduces operational overhead. Aviatrix has positively impacted my organization by making management and administration easier, allowing us to manage all the cloud infrastructure from a single console. There is less overhead on operations due to automation support, and cloud network segmentation has become more advanced.
Ashwani-Tyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional Manager at Orange
Centralized control has simplified cloud access and has improved operational visibility
If they can have better firewall features as their competitors have, such as Fortinet and Versa, that would help to place this solution better so that we can address security related things. If they can have all the IPS, IDS, everything built on all the edge devices, whether physical or virtual, that could be one improvement. Actually, if customers are existing Cisco customers, if Cisco can be more flexible to leverage the existing investment, that could be another important aspect to save on cost and be more competitive from a pricing perspective. Overall, the pricing or the segment that Cisco deals with is a bit premium, which they charge a bit premium against the competition on the licensing, hardware, and services. The implementation is not straightforward. You need a specialized partner or specialized people who can implement this. It can be simplified a bit from that perspective as well. Mostly the way we implement the policies for a big environment requires a lot of things that we need to take care of. If that can somehow be improved, because they have different components, like they have vManage, they have vSmart, and vBond and all these components have to work with a certain flow that they need to follow.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business52
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise52
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aviatrix?
I remember covering it in one of my modules, that Aviatrix actually saves so much on cost, especially in terms of the human personnel needed to actually utilize Aviatrix. I think there is cost savi...
What needs improvement with Aviatrix?
I think Aviatrix can be improved in terms of marketing and ensuring that many people know about it, as I believe it still leaves much to be desired. I only came to know about it when I was offered ...
What is your primary use case for Aviatrix?
My main use case for Aviatrix was for studying the S during that month.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco SD-WAN?
The pricing for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is something I don't know as the tender is not in my department or at my level, but I know it is very expensive.
What needs improvement with Cisco SD-WAN?
I cannot speak to programming-side improvements since that is not my area of expertise. On a base level, improvements could include a better interface, more AI capabilities, better pricing, and bet...
What is your primary use case for Cisco SD-WAN?
The primary use case is for network management and routers we have for WAN connectivity.
 

Also Known As

Aviatrix Enterprise Contract
Cisco SD-WAN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hyatt, Robert Half, GREE
Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, Megaport and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN). Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.