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Cisco Enterprise Routers vs Netgate TNSR 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Enterprise Routers
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Routers (1st)
Netgate TNSR
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Routers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Enterprise Routers is designed for Routers and holds a mindshare of 14.7%, down 19.6% compared to last year.
Netgate TNSR, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Routers, holds 15.5% mindshare, down 18.6% since last year.
Routers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Enterprise Routers14.7%
MikroTik Routers and Switches17.2%
Juniper MX Series Routers10.2%
Other57.900000000000006%
Routers
Virtual Routers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Netgate TNSR15.5%
VyOS Universal Router19.2%
6WIND Virtual Service Router (VSR)16.8%
Other48.5%
Virtual Routers
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad IrfanGhauri - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Solutions at Comtech Associate
Enterprise routing has delivered advanced security integration and supported AI data centers
The licensing part of Cisco Enterprise Routers is a bit tricky nowadays. With DNA, they have introduced DNA licensing. If they make it more simplistic with respect to customer understanding, I think it would be a good selling point for them. The licensing model could be a bit too high or a bit too complex. They need to make it simplified. It would be good for their business. With respect to enterprise routing, I would like to see additional features in the future to make it closer to a ten. Previously, Cisco has integrated many technologies into their router and multiple security features. However, since they have created a separate firewall product line, Firepower, I still want them to integrate more security features into their enterprise-grade router as well. Content filtering, application control, and website filtering are features that should be integrated into the router. They have multiple options, so with respect to technology, I am expecting that they integrate security more and Voice over IP features more easily into the router. For the customer, this makes their life easier in the sense that a single box can give them multiple solutions. I think they are already providing 5G interfaces, and there are options available.
JL
Principal Network Engineer at HarborPoint Networks
Achieves exceptional performance and programmability with minimal hardware requirements
Netgate TNSR is a fully-featured router that handles all the technologies that we use. It has a very familiar and intuitive command-line interface. Additionally, it includes an API, which makes it easier to use in a programmatic fashion. It has been a very cost-effective alternative to larger router vendors, and we tend to get better performance out of it for the hardware that we use, achieving over four hundred gigs of throughput with very minimal hardware. Throughput is key to us.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco Enterprise Routers has significant advantages when compared to its competitors because Cisco routers are practically the de facto standard for any routing solutions."
"The durability of the solution is excellent."
"The solution offers very good networking capabilities, the stability is excellent, the consistency of the configuration has been very good, and the performance of the devices is very reliable."
"The stability of the solution's router is its most valuable feature."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is its ability to implement layer three protocols and layer two protocols like OSPS in BSS and BSC environments, with the Nexus Cisco 7000."
"It integrates very well into our network and we find it to be extremely robust and durable."
"We appreciate that this solution performs well, regardless of the volume of traffic being fed through it."
"We have received high-level support from Cisco, it has been great."
"The solution has good performance."
"It is surprisingly high performance for very little total cost of ownership."
 

Cons

"These routers are not easy to use for non-professional users, so simplification is something that would improve this product."
"Tends to have a short life cycle."
"It would be better if Cisco had a User Interface (UI) that we could configure from a web browser. Right now, we only have a Graphical User Interface (GUI). I would like to see a new UI with a dashboard for configuration in the next release."
"Longer duration of support."
"It is can be very expensive and licensing complex."
"The price is very high here in Egypt. Cisco devices are the most expensive."
"It would be good if Cisco Enterprise Routers could improve their integration with other vendors. For example the AGLP protocol is supported by Cisco and not by any other vendors."
"The licensing structure is very convoluted, and the cost of the licenses includes a whole bunch of stuff that you'll never use."
"The scalability could improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing policy can sometimes be very complicated."
"I rate the product's price a six or seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is very cheap."
"The licensing cost is quite reasonable."
"It's not probably the best solution if you have a very limited budget, as it can become very expensive to have robust equipment."
"The license of Cisco Enterprise Routers is too expensive compared to other solutions. As we try to increase the bandwidth, it gets even more expensive. There is an annual license needed to use the solution."
"I would rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten and it is yearly."
"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"The solution is expensive."
"There is not a license required for this solution but the price should be less expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business49
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise45
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How do Cisco Enterprise routers compare with Mikrotik routers and switches?
Cisco Enterprise Routers are very stable and easy to use. They offer a very solid performance and are very secure. They also have a very good, long lifespan. We feel the command configuration is ve...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Enterprise Routers?
Regarding the pricing for Cisco Enterprise Routers, I would say it might be a little bit too high because for large companies, it does not matter since they prefer Cisco, but smaller companies ofte...
What needs improvement with Cisco Enterprise Routers?
Utilizing Cisco's integrated security protocols is the area where I wish to get into in the coming days, but currently, I am not working on the security portfolio.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Netgate TNSR?
On the market TNSR is the lowest cost, but don't let that throw you off. It is the best cooked product in its space. You do have to maintain your yearly licenses though, so it's a good idea to add ...
What is your primary use case for Netgate TNSR?
We use Netgate TNSR as core routers and edge routers for peering. We have multiple edge routers, and we set up peering with our service providers and other peers on those edge routers. We also have...
What advice do you have for others considering Netgate TNSR?
I would absolutely recommend Netgate TNSR. It is surprisingly high performance for very little total cost of ownership. I would rate Netgate at least a nine because their product is made very well,...
 

Also Known As

No data available
TNSR
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, Boingo, Chartwell School, Children's Hospital of Orange County , Department of Justice, Explorer Pipeline, Linz AG, National Rugby League, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Telecom Italia, Transwestern
US Army, TrustCo Bank, Arkansas State University
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, MikroTik, Juniper and others in Routers. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.