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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 (1st), AV Over IP Switching (1st)
Juniper QFabric
Ranking in LAN Switching
11th
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 February 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Switches is 21.8%, down from 30.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper QFabric is 5.0%, 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 Switches21.8%
Juniper QFabric5.0%
Other73.2%
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 configuration is easy."
"Customer support answers on time and resolve any issues I have."
"It uses many protocols to ease operations, such as CDP and the interoperability of other Cisco products."
"I like the flexibility of this product."
"The scalability is excellent."
"When it comes to Cisco Catalyst Switches, one can say that the legacy switches are stable."
"The benefit of the tool is that it is a stable product."
"A very expandable solution."
"Juniper QFabric has various advantages including scalability, simplicity, performance, and flexibility."
"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."
"It is known for being agile, flexible, and cost-effective when working with various vendors."
"The solution is stable."
"It's user-friendly."
"The vendor maintains the product well."
"The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability."
"The solution is easy to use and has good performance."
 

Cons

"One feature that I would like to add is for the following: At times, when I add an access-list for a hostname, it doesn't actually add the hostname, it adds the IP address. So in the back-end, if my server changes the IP address I have to go in manually and change the IP address. If the capability was there in Cisco to add a hostname instead of the IP address that would be really good."
"There could be improvements in the repeat configuration with some file integration that is currently missing."
"The price of the product is very expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"The licensing process could be a bit less complex."
"These switches should have better compatibility with software-defined technology."
"The pricing could be better. Cisco is quite expensive."
"Cisco should support all of the features that are included with the suite."
"Having support for all OpenFlow versions would be beneficial."
"The pricing structure could be more budget-friendly."
"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."
"It works too much on rebooting and there is some memory leakage."
"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."
"It would be nice if Juniper provided the system integrator with training, similar to that of Cisco."
"The disruptive upgrade was an issue for us."
"The stability needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't know a lot about the price, but they are affordable compared with other solutions."
"It is very pricey. You have to pay for support."
"We had to pay for the product’s licenses."
"Pricing is an issue I have been facing, in comparison with HPE or Juniper. The Nexus series is out of the question right now. Scalability is more an issue on the pricing side and less on the technology side."
"I don't see any price issue with Cisco. Whenever you buy a quality product, you always have a mindset of paying the premium amount. For any good product, you pay a premium amount, but that also means you are going to recover that premium over a period of time in terms of performance."
"I rate the overall product a six out of ten from a price perspective since it is an expensive tool."
"Highly priced"
"When compared with other products, the solution is kind of on the expensive side."
"The pricing is high."
"The price for Juniper QFabric could improve. There are subscription, maintenance, and add-on feature fees."
"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 and it is possible to find better pricing option solutions on the market, but the licensing model is quite flexible."
"The price is relatively high, but it offers an advantage over its competitors by providing better performance and functionality."
"Juniper QFabric is a high-level solution but it could be less expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
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: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.