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Cisco Nexus vs Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 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 Nexus
Ranking in Data Center Networking
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (4th)
Juniper MX Series Universal...
Ranking in Data Center Networking
6th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Center Networking category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 15.3%, down from 18.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms is 5.0%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Center Networking Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Nexus15.3%
Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms5.0%
Other79.7%
Data Center Networking
 

Featured Reviews

Fakhar Mahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
Migration between data centers has strengthened core connectivity and simplified segmentation
The biggest problems during migration were corporate issues, including dependencies on other devices such as F5, HSMs, and firewalls from Palo Alto. Everything was connected over the core switches, which made this a quite difficult part to manage and to onboard the teams and to understand the impact of the migration. We encountered an issue where we have two data centers, and unknowingly we were configuring the devices with the same VPC number on both devices. By doing that, we were not able to terminate the lease lines over those core switches. According to Cisco, we had to change the VPC number of one of the data center's core switches since they are in a VPC. We are still waiting, and it has been more than five to six years just to change the VPC number and migrate back the lease line. Now we are having cabin switches for the lease line and then the core switch. That VPC number issue was quite surprising for us. However, we have a very frequent issue with Cisco Nexus, particularly with the SFPs. Every time a port or the SFP heats up, it gets faulty. We have almost sixteen Nexus switches per data center. In a year, we experience one or two port issues per annum. We have standard Equinix data centers with standard installations, but somehow the temperature is always maintained and there is no ducting, yet the ports and the SFPs heat up or become faulty. This is a very frequent issue with the SFP-based port.
FF
Technical Manager at Peter Rauter GmbH
Router configuration facilitates effective network solutions
The configurations and CLI of the Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms are valuable features. While I did not appreciate them initially, I have grown to value them. The stability of the router is reliable, and they perform according to our requirements. We are using firewall systems and all other security mechanisms which are state-of-the-art with the Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms. The main benefit of the Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms is their stability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This product has improved the way our organization functions in the way that the rack-based design allowed us to eliminate chassis-based designs. The chassis design is more complicated to manage and maintain in field operations."
"It provides a very flexible connection to a server. When you go into history and the VPC, it provides a very flexible connection from it. Once a server goes down I can instruct it easily. So the network actually keeps quality even if onsite it is down."
"The most valuable features are the solution is robust, you are able to use it for fabric architecture as well as SPAN on exit with the controller."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its reliability."
"The biggest benefit to this solution is a high port density with high bandwidth."
"This is a very stable solution."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is to segregate the network."
"The most valuable features of this solution are scalability and reliability."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms is its robustness."
"We haven't faced any issues with the tool's integration."
"I recommend Juniper because it is a code router that is easy to configure and manage."
"It's a stable product."
"The product is highly scalable."
"The most valuable Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platform is its ability to do routing in any way that I need. It's more than capable of handling the load I'm currently sending."
"This solution is easy to manage and the resiliency of the hardware is excellent."
"The main benefit of the Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms is their stability."
 

Cons

"All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution."
"Initially, the codes I received through ACI were quite unstable, causing me to frequently replace them, which led to significant issues."
"There are limitations on some of the lower level 9K solutions where you can't do the same things that you would normally be able to do, like for instance the number of static maps that you can configure on it."
"The scalability can be improved."
"I am looking for a GUI that goes alongside them and more SD-WAN built to their core switches."
"The operating system needs to be improved. There should be stability in the operating system, and it should not have as many vulnerabilities."
"The product could be updated more frequently for other phone model support."
"I would like to see better collaboration with other, low-end devices."
"Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms should incorporate gen AI features."
"Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms could improve by having a graphical interface. A lot of the younger generation tend to be used to graphical interfaces, command line tends to scare them."
"I want support to improve in terms of quality."
"The main disadvantage is the price when compared to MikroTik, which is much cheaper but less stable."
"Although the support for this solution is good, there is still room for improvement."
"It needs to be more multifunctional for enterprises."
"The product licensing process needs improvement."
"Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms should improve by being more agile with new technology that sits on top of the router."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a virtual license."
"Cisco Nexus is not cheap compared to Fortinet, Palo Alto, and Check Point."
"Costs more than most, but the reliability pays for the difference."
"The subscription model and price could be better."
"Cisco Nexus is not a cheaply priced product."
"We have three hundred to four hundred data centers of Nexus. So the coverage associated with Smart Net is 27 by 4, is basically what we spend each year. If the incentives get better, which I know they're working on, it would be great but right now we're buying year to year."
"We use a local distributor for support, which is very expensive."
"It's around $160K a year for our license."
"The price of Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms is reasonable. We are on a perpetual license. I do not have any maintenance service as part of the license."
"The tool's pricing is in the middle."
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Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise83
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Nexus?
The product's initial setup phase is very easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
We are a reseller, and we sell products to our customers.
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
Cisco Nexus may not be very popular because of the requirements that we come across, as it will go into the core data centers, whereas we work with most of the corporate sectors, so Cisco Nexus is ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms?
I don't have information about the pricing setup costs or licensing costs of the Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms because we purchased these MX series routers years ago.
What needs improvement with Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms?
I don't think there are any areas that need improvement in the Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms. Everything I am using works perfectly. A graphical user interface would be beneficial, ...
What is your primary use case for Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms?
We are using the Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms as a B2B core router. I use the Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms to protect the router itself, not for any customers, IP ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins
Vocus New Zealand, Beeline, Iron Mountain
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus vs. Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.