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Cisco Nexus 9000 Series vs Juniper QFX Series Switches comparison

 

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

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
21st
Ranking in Data Center Networking
9th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Juniper QFX Series Switches
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
23rd
Ranking in Data Center Networking
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Fakhar Mahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
Has consistently supported high availability with reliable performance and minimal disruption
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series and the routers are good, but the FMC or FTDs still need some improvement. We have Palo Alto firewalls and Next-Generation Firewalls in our environment. In comparison to the main firewall, we moved from Cisco FTDs to Palo Alto. We still have FTDs in our environment, but the majority of the firewalls have been moved to Palo Alto. They are more user-friendly, give more visibility, and are more efficient. The performance is better than Cisco. With the new features, Cisco is having some improvement for the FTD. I am currently evaluating the FTDs. The new version has better features like the encrypted visibility engine and user-based changes in FMCs, and other things are quite useful for us. FTDs do have limitations and other issues. We communicated that limitation and feature support to the Cisco account manager. We do have support for the devices. We currently have a weekly call with Cisco and they are making progress regarding new versions of the FMCs and introducing new features. The performance of deployment has improved quite a bit compared to four or five years ago.
reviewer1912536 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Technical at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Comprehensive management tools and robust performance drive network efficiency
Juniper QFX Series Switches are very good data center switches, and they are the core part of their fabric. It's a very good solution with excellent performance. They are easy to use and flexible to deploy in any kind of environment. The Juniper QFX Series Switches is not one switch. When building a fabric, multiple switches must be implemented, including spine, leaf, and other components. Regarding working in a data center environment, they are feature-rich. They work with EVPN solutions, providing a Layer 3 fabric, which is a very good capability. AI is not an integral part right now, so it should not be discussed here.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"RealPresence works effectively."
"Performance has been great with no abnormal behaviors detected, and the network remains stable even in failover scenarios, supporting vast environments with high availability."
"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."
"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very durable and very reliable, and there has never been any issue with it."
"I do see a return on investment with Juniper QFX Series Switches because I can use this device for a long time, and it's still very stable until now."
"The QFX series is a good choice for large data centers, particularly for Spine-Leaf architectures."
"Juniper QFX Series Switches provide a good platform for all of our hardware and are easy to use."
"Support is good and customer-friendly"
"Juniper QFX Series Switches are very good data center switches, and they are the core part of their fabric."
"It's really easy to replicate rules. It's the one that I've used; it was CLI-based. You can implement a large set of rules with CLI. You can just copy a script and add additional changes to the source and destination on the part. And so it's easy to do large zone-based rules."
"The most valuable features are the VxLAN and the EVPN."
"EVPN-VXLAN feature offers the most benefits."
 

Cons

"The SFP modules we are using have had issues. We have Cisco modules, but they frequently heat up or there are packet error issues."
"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."
"Cost-wise, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very expensive."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model. It is too high."
"I don't think there's any improvement needed on Juniper QFX Series Switches, but I would like to see other cheaper plans for the license on the QFX series."
"I faced issues with the deployment and upgrade. In the QFX5110 series, features like ISSU and DSSQ should be improved. Upgrades should be smoother."
"The price could be cheaper."
"There have been some issues sometimes. When you upgrade the device, it doesn't come up. It gets stuck."
"It is very costly."
"Integrating QFX switches was the first point of challenge."
"I don't think there's any improvement needed on Juniper QFX Series Switches, but I would like to see other cheaper plans for the license on the QFX series."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The price of Juniper QFX Series Switches is expensive because we are running some enterprise hardware. However, they are less expensive than Cisco or HPE hardware."
"The solution is cheap, especially compared to competitors like Cisco."
"The cost is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
After the initial integration, the focus has been on support rather than further development. Cost-wise, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very expensive. The pricing could absolutely be improved. So far,...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series serves as a core router and core switch for users, and provides interconnectivity between the core switch and the access switch, as well as remote access switch for smaller ...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
I am a customer of this solution and also a distributor. Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is usually integrated with other Cisco tools or third-party tools, including 3750, 3850, 3650, and 3750 as access sw...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper QFX Series Switches?
The price depends heavily upon the level of relationship you have with the OEM. We are a number one, tier-one partner of Juniper. Therefore, we normally get better discounts than with Cisco because...
What needs improvement with Juniper QFX Series Switches?
I don't think there's any improvement needed on Juniper QFX Series Switches, but I would like to see other cheaper plans for the license on the QFX series.
What is your primary use case for Juniper QFX Series Switches?
I use Juniper QFX Series Switches just for layer 2 switches. I'm not using layer 3 on Juniper QFX Series Switches; usually, I use MX series for layer 3. For layer 2, I think it's very simple on Jun...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Linode, VPRO, West Chester University
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus 9000 Series vs. Juniper QFX Series Switches and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.