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Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Juniper QFabric comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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

Cisco Catalyst Switches
Ranking in LAN Switching
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
178
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (5th), Data Center Networking (2nd), AV Over IP Switching (1st)
Juniper QFabric
Ranking in LAN Switching
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Switches is 22.8%, down from 30.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper QFabric is 4.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Catalyst Switches22.8%
Juniper QFabric4.8%
Other72.4%
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

AG
Unit Nos at Orange
Reliable support boosts confidence while initial setup complexities highlight improvement areas
Challenges I've encountered mostly involve the RMA part for hardware replacement, which doesn't happen regularly, but sometimes I face challenges due to limited parts in India; they offer different model devices as a stopgap arrangement. It's quite difficult to specify features I would want to see in future updates because that varies from model to model. I would definitely recommend Cisco Catalyst Switches to other users. We do maintenance for Cisco Catalyst Switches. For maintenance, we usually need three people from different regions working as a single team; our engineers handle both projects and maintenance, so there isn't a specific engineer just for maintenance. I work with firewalls and next-generation firewalls. Overall, I would rate the solution as an eight out of ten.
Suresh Pathipatti - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Information Technology Administrator at Aighospital
Performs well, is easy to set up, and the vendor maintains the product well
QFabric is the core switch. We also have two Brocade switches for the Fibre level The product works fine. It is an excellent product. There are different element systems and different options for each generation of the tool. We maintain the data center and analyze issues. I have no negative…

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 feature of this solution is communication."
"It works well."
"One main feature with Cisco is you know you are going to get a very good switching infrastructure that is secure."
"The product is reliable."
"The most important features are that Cisco is one of the most robust switches, it is easy to configure, and the documentation is pretty good."
"These switches are flexible and user-friendly."
"With Cisco Catalyst Switches, everything is working perfectly. We have not had issues with this solution."
"Cisco offers DNS features over other vendors."
"The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability."
"The vendor maintains the product well."
"QFabric supports redundancy and includes all of the enterprise and service provider features that customers would want in data center or service provider network."
"Juniper QFabric has various advantages including scalability, simplicity, performance, and flexibility."
"The solution is stable."
"It is known for being agile, flexible, and cost-effective when working with various vendors."
"It's user-friendly."
"The 40 gig backbone InterConneX was valuable for our use case. It is even faster now. QFabric has spine-leaf technology or topology, which basically makes every single hop only one hop away in terms of connecting from one device to another. It is a pretty good and robust solution. It works pretty well in terms of scalability, and their technical support is amazing."
 

Cons

"The biggest barrier to buying Cisco or using Cisco is the price and also the competition with competitors and with Cisco partners."
"The configuration options on the Cisco Commerce website could be more efficient."
"The technical support, in some cases, should be faster and could improve."
"The only improvement I would like to see with Cisco Catalyst Switches is the pricing."
"The current catalyst is probably outdated so we will most likely move to the newer version of the solution soon."
"Cisco can definitely improve the training part. They can provide more training related to configuration."
"They should also have a graphic interface for the switches too without the command line."
"With most of the Cisco devices and models, we faced a slight decrease in speed during the initial setup and while restarting the system"
"The pricing structure could be more budget-friendly."
"I do not use GUI's very much for switch stacks. I am always in the CLI. However, I do know that Juniper in the past has lacked on their GUI's, but they have been working on it."
"They are working on the virtualization of the actual fabric layer. They are moving away from the original spine-leaf design to a different infrastructure. Instead of having three tiers, which was the director of the interconnected nodes, they cut them back, and they still have that kind of structure."
"Having support for all OpenFlow versions would be beneficial."
"The disruptive upgrade was an issue for us."
"The stability needs to be improved."
"It works too much on rebooting and there is some memory leakage."
"It would be nice if Juniper provided the system integrator with training, similar to that of Cisco."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are no licensing fees required."
"It is reasonably priced because we have already conducted a tender, allowing Cisco and other vendors to compete for the best price."
"Compared to the price of other solutions such as Huawei and HP, Cisco Catalyst Switches is a cheaper solution."
"You don't have to pay any additional costs while using the product."
"It is expensive."
"The price of Cisco Catalyst switches is reasonable."
"If you compare Cisco to other products, Cisco is more expensive. If you choose a 7000 series switch it will be a very pricy system. The support from Cisco is an additional service."
"The price is on the higher side."
"Juniper QFabric is a high-level solution but it could be less expensive."
"The pricing is high and it is possible to find better pricing option solutions on the market, but the licensing model is quite flexible."
"The price for Juniper QFabric could improve. There are subscription, maintenance, and add-on feature fees."
"The price is relatively high, but it offers an advantage over its competitors by providing better performance and functionality."
"In terms of price, the QFabric solution is going to be probably in the middle of the road for a fabric solution."
"The pricing is high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business79
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise79
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

Would you recommend replacing a Cisco Catalyst Switch by a D-link one?
Hello Mesfin It depends on the real scenario, the cisco 2960 is a very good device and they usually have routing functions but there are many different models within the same 2960 line, and on the ...
What do you like most about Cisco Catalyst Switches?
We are a vendor for the healthcare sector, especially hospitals, and normally, we use a full Cisco solution for stability, especially for the stability of the Access Points and the security of swit...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Switches?
For pricing satisfaction, I'd say it will be six to seven because Cisco usually is costly compared to other vendors. Regarding pricing, there is indeed room for improvement.
What do you like most about Juniper QFabric?
The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper QFabric?
Juniper QFabric is not overly expensive. Licensing is required for certain features like vRRP, but setting up a virtual chassis does not necessitate a separate license.
What needs improvement with Juniper QFabric?
Improvements could be made to QFabric's lifecycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support. The rapid release cycle and short life span compared to comp...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Catalyst, Catalyst
QFabric
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Afni, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Del Papa Distributing, Explorer Pipeline, Mindtree, Omaha World Herald, Radio 538, Sony Corporation, Telecom Italia, Telenor Arena
MCB Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Juniper QFabric and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.