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Cisco Nexus vs Juniper QFX Series Switches 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco Nexus offers stability and efficiency, with long-term cost savings and reliability justifying its initial expense for users.
Sentiment score
5.9
Juniper QFX Switches provide durable, cost-effective solutions, with reliable performance and favorable ROI despite pricing and license challenges.
Speeding up our response times and reducing errors and incidents with automation and available APIs.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Other brands might break after three or four years, but with Juniper, I can use it until now, around nine years, and it's still very usable and very stable.
Network Engineer at DCI Indonesia
The normal ROI customers work with is five years unless there is a major change in technology.
Manager Technical at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Nexus support is praised for expertise and responsiveness, despite high costs, being favored for reliability and assistance.
Sentiment score
7.5
Juniper QFX Switch support is professional and helpful, with effective problem-solving despite occasional parts delays. Rated 7.5/10.
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
I would rate the support of Cisco an eight out of ten.
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
The technical support of Juniper is very helpful because if we have some big issues, we can raise P1 or P2 tickets, and the response from Juniper is very fast.
Network Engineer at DCI Indonesia
Sometimes parts are not available in stock, then you have to wait for replacement time.
Manager Technical at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Nexus provides robust scalability and versatility for enterprise networks, despite being costly and having some limitations.
Sentiment score
6.9
Juniper QFX Series Switches offer reliable performance, flexibility, and scalability for diverse industries, suitable for varied network sizes.
When building a fabric, you can add multiple leaf switches and multiple spine switches if required.
Manager Technical at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Nexus is reliable and high-performing, with minor issues, praised for data center use and stability with updates.
Sentiment score
6.7
Juniper QFX Series Switches are praised for stability, performance, and pricing, though some report occasional configuration issues during updates.
Initially, the stability of Cisco Nexus, particularly with the ACI, was problematic due to unstable codes, requiring replacements.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Juniper has better performance than any other networking product as far as performance is concerned in the router area.
Manager Technical at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users want Cisco Nexus improvements in GUI, integration, scalability, programmability, cost-efficiency, compatibility, management, and training resources.
Juniper QFX Series Switches need cost adjustment, easier UI, feature enhancements, fiber connectivity, and better market strategies.
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The solution is on-premises and stable.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
It might be pretty expensive for other companies.
Director at WAJDA GROUP
My personal opinion is that if anyone wants to work with a Layer 3 fabric in a data center, they should choose Juniper because working with ACI and APIC is very complex in the Cisco part.
Manager Technical at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I would like to see other cheaper plans for the license on the QFX series.
Network Engineer at DCI Indonesia
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Nexus pricing is high but justified by features, with varied licensing options and favorable long-term ownership costs.
Juniper QFX Series Switches offer scalability and features, but they can be costly with potential software upgrade challenges.
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
We are a number one, tier-one partner of Juniper. Therefore, we normally get better discounts than with Cisco because we don't have the level one partnership with Cisco.
Manager Technical at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Nexus is praised for its performance, scalability, advanced routing, integration, low latency, automation, security, and redundancy.
Juniper QFX Series Switches are renowned for scalability, reliability, high port density, and innovative design with low power consumption.
The VPC feature of Cisco Nexus is great because it provides an active-active way of forwarding the traffic and avoids blocking any of the links.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
I encountered an issue where different models within the same series, the 95308 DC, do not support VPC between the EX series and FX3 series.
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
They are easy to use and flexible to deploy in any kind of environment.
Manager Technical at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The best feature of Juniper QFX Series Switches is the virtual chassis feature because it's very stable in my experience.
Network Engineer at DCI Indonesia
 

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 QFX Series Switches
Ranking in Data Center Networking
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (18th)
 

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 QFX Series Switches is 11.8%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Center Networking Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Juniper QFX Series Switches11.8%
Cisco Nexus15.3%
Other72.9%
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.
FauzanRahmanto - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at DCI Indonesia
Has streamlined deployment with consistent configuration and reduced long-term hardware replacement needs
The best feature of Juniper QFX Series Switches is the virtual chassis feature because it's very stable in my experience. Juniper QFX Series Switches have positively impacted my organization because it's very helpful for customer connectivity. We've been using it for customer connections, and it's very stable. We can use it for a long time without any broken devices or errors on the system. It has helped me significantly with my network.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
7%
 

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 Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

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 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.
 

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
Linode, VPRO, West Chester University
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus vs. Juniper QFX Series Switches and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.