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Cisco Nexus 9000 Series vs Meraki MS Switches comparison

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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
12th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (6th)
Meraki MS Switches
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is 1.0%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki MS Switches is 2.5%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Meraki MS Switches2.5%
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series1.0%
Other96.5%
Ethernet Switches
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Technical Marketing Engineer Hybrid Cloud Infrastructures at NetApp
Policy-driven data centers have delivered low-latency connectivity for critical applications
The most critical and important feature in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is VPC. Apart from VPC, there are many other features in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series that stand out as advantages. You can apply access control lists on that. You can do Layer 3 capabilities. You can configure HSRP. You can implement VRFs. You can isolate the L3 network within your data center. It has a lot of features including network segmentation capabilities. You can apply a lot of security hardening and manage the access on the switches through auditing to see who is doing what and restrict access based on the network admin role. These are great features. The overlay technology support in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is good for large-scale deployment where you are going to build something like a hyperscaler. You need more network segments, and with VXLAN, you can definitely build a large fabric with those Nexus switches.
Boaz Katabazi - PeerSpot reviewer
Network &Security Engineer at Natioanal Drug Authority Uganda
Cloud-managed switches have simplified remote branch access while maintaining strong performance
Cisco is a very stable platform. Even though we haven't upgraded firmware and all that for a long time, it can still perform. Unlike the other switches in the infrastructure where you find you have to constantly upgrade, they will warn you about vulnerability and all those. When you're scanning, it will tell you that there's a lot. For Cisco, once there's a release of firmware and all that, it's always very stable for a period of time. We have not replaced Cisco switches, apart from issues to do with product or power failure and maybe other reasons. We have not replaced them quite often compared to these other products. They are quite resilient.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are using the core capabilities of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Ethernet switches, and it is performing well."
"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very durable and very reliable, and there has never been any issue with it."
"The performance in data center operations with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is excellent; we have never faced any performance issues."
"For one of the biggest European customers, they deployed Cisco Nexus for their core networking and it has been running for a few years without having a single downtime."
"Performance has been great with no abnormal behaviors detected, and the network remains stable even in failover scenarios, supporting vast environments with high availability."
"The features for manageability and visibility are impressive."
"According to the customers, they are not utilizing even 40% of the switches because the capacity is very large."
"The stability and reliability of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series are robust, and once you put it on, it does not just fail; that takes a long time, maybe even years."
"The most valuable feature is cloud management."
"Quality of Service is easy to deploy. The ease of deployment, in general, is valuable. It is easy to do port configuration and VLAN assignments."
"The scalability of the solution is excellent."
"Meraki MS Switches have a very user-friendly dashboard and the policies are straightforward for sending them to the devices and blocking sites."
"For deployments of a changing environment, these are the best switches I've ever used."
"The setup was as easy as a setup can be, we had no issues."
"It makes the management of SSIDs fairly easy."
"It's well worth the time and effort to get the solution going and use it in the future."
 

Cons

"The potential for improvement lies in the licensing aspect, which is somewhat confusing. The perpetual and subscription licensing is a concern."
"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."
"I would rate the technical support for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series an eight out of ten. This rating is not because of their lack of expertise, but just the assignment period."
"In terms of automation with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series, it could be better."
"For Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches, I think we need to work on the HSRP. Whenever it flaps or something happens, it creates an issue."
"The SFP modules we are using have had issues. We have Cisco modules, but they frequently heat up or there are packet error issues."
"Even though it is expensive, I am not sure about the return on investment. It is expensive, and you will need to pay for subscription fees that also are not cheap."
"If I have a Juniper and want to uplink with Cisco, there could be some configuration challenges."
"The cameras should be better integrated."
"The product has no CLI. The solution must provide a command line interface like the one in the Cisco environment with a proper iOS interrogation ability."
"The product is not scalable. It's a physical device and therefore limited."
"Better alerting capabilities are needed because they do not provide enough notification or detail about events."
"The improvement needed for Meraki MS Switches is the ability to connect in the worst case when I encounter internet issues."
"Technical support is not the best."
"One simple way to improve the product is to reconsider the price. They are more expensive than their competitors."
"I don't like some of the mobile device management options. They're a little bit hard to find in the system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The licensing is purchased on a one, three, five, and seven year basis."
"If you buy a license for one switch, it will include the licensing for the device RMA, device failure warranty, technical support, and everything else. Also covered is support for software updates for future releases. It's a single license for everything and there's nothing that customers need to pay in addition to the license."
"Meraki is not an expensive switch, like Cisco."
"I rate the price of Meraki MS Switches a two out of ten."
"We paid for our switches outright, at a cost of between $15,000 USD and $18,000 USD."
"The price of the solution has room for improvement."
"One key challenge often encountered is the perception that strategic products like Cisco and Meraki tend to be more expensive than alternatives like Aruba."
"I don't have an issue with the price of this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
23%
Outsourcing Company
17%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise23
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
If we speak about the negative side, the prices are something that could be improved. It is expensive compared with other competitors, about 40% higher than any other vendor. This is the main point...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series focuses on serving the data center primarily, not the endpoints. The focus is on how to serve your data center, perform the segmentation that you need inside your data cente...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
The policy-driven approach in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series can be understood through the integration with Cisco DNA. One of the main features or strength points that Cisco Nexus 9000 Series has is the f...
What needs improvement with Meraki MS Switches?
Price-wise, Meraki MS Switches is high, but since our customer's acceptance is good, that works for us. The only thing is if the price was slightly lower, then it could have been more affordable to...
What is your primary use case for Meraki MS Switches?
We do work on other Cisco products at the moment besides Secure Access and XDR, including Catalyst switches, SD-WAN, and Meraki. We work extensively on Meraki switching and routing with the switche...
 

Also Known As

No data available
MS220, MS320, MS420
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Cisco Live Milan, Hyatt
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus 9000 Series vs. Meraki MS Switches and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.