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Juniper MX Series Routers vs Juniper Session Smart Router comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 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

Juniper MX Series Routers
Ranking in Routers
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT) (1st)
Juniper Session Smart Router
Ranking in Routers
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Routers category, the mindshare of Juniper MX Series Routers is 13.4%, up from 12.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper Session Smart Router is 1.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Routers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Juniper MX Series Routers13.4%
Juniper Session Smart Router1.7%
Other84.9%
Routers
 

Featured Reviews

Patrick Anaku - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Roke Telkom
Performance excels with reliable uptime and robust features
The best features of Juniper MX Series Routers include their performance, which is quite good for us in terms of hardware performance. The Junos OS, the software, is stable, and we don't have many issues with the Juniper system itself. They have numerous features that allow us to deliver services, be it Layer 2 connectivity to customers, Layer 3 connectivity, data center connectivity, or even security features. Hardware performance has been a top-notch reason why we chose Juniper in the beginning, especially the MX series, which performs well in terms of network uptime and we don't encounter many failures. We have had a bad experience here and there with the ACX series, and their network performance is not so great compared to MX, so we have mostly done away with the ACX and only use MX at some of the core sites. I have seen a return on investment from the solution. Initially, we deployed MX80s on the network, and since our company has been in operation since 2006, from that point we used MX80s until around 2016 when we upgraded most of them to MX204s. From our experience, once we buy an MX204, we don't have issues with it; we have never had to replace an MX204 on the network. Once we deploy it, it works until we decide to upgrade the capacity. The return on investment is significant, as once we buy it, we have no worries about performance.
SRI GANESH  PHANIYAPPA - PeerSpot reviewer
Sub Divisional Engineer NOC Bangalore at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
Delivered tailored features and meets requirements effectively
We are using it as a DNG. This means all subscriber PPPoE sessions or ILS Smart VPN connections are terminated through the access network to this BNG, Uniphore BNG. From there, they are managed Everything has been fine. Although we did not explore much about the solution, they provided us with a…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It offers high protection and I like it."
"On the SRX, the firewall is very easy to configure, especially when you want to filter out traffic."
"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. We never had any issues."
"The solution is quite stable. We've found it to be very good. There aren't bugs, glitches, or crashes."
"I have found the most useful features to be layered VPNs, IPsec, VPLS, and firewall filters."
"Juniper Switches is stable, easy to use, flexible, and has good performance. Also, the technology is good. It has a lifetime warranty and the prices are also very good."
"The solution is pretty easy to set up after a bit of training."
"The full Internet DGP is a valuable feature."
"Customer service is very prompt."
"They provided us with a customized product according to our requirements."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."
"As compared to the other major vendors in the SD-WAN market, such as VeloCloud, Cisco, and others, the tunnel-free and secure vector routing technology is its major USP, which gives plenty of room to discuss with the customer why IPSec from 1998 is a bit outdated."
"The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based."
 

Cons

"We'd appreciate it if they had a better GUI. It would be more flexible for the customers that way."
"The third-level customer support coming from Juniper itself could be much better. To get assistance from Juniper, we sometimes have to wait for weeks and months. I don't really appreciate that. Their support should be faster."
"The solution could improve by providing enhancements to built-in SDN or SDWAN."
"The initial setup is not easy."
"Better documentation to assist with implementation would be helpful."
"Currently, I don't have specific concerns or ideas for improvement. Regarding functionalities, I appreciate the user interface of Juniper Elite. Additionally, I'm exploring the use of Juniper Routers in a Parliament environment, particularly with Baragon, and so far, I find it to be a valuable feature. We're currently facing an issue as we're in the process of building and dealing with the software, specifically transitioning from R2 to RC. It's like when there is an update in the routers, and in the process, there are chances to end up losing some of your settings. The challenge arises because the recommended configurations for RC do not align with our features, necessitating a reevaluation of many features. It would have been more efficient if the initial recommendation had been for RC, avoiding the need to redo our research. This has resulted in a loss of time for us, and we've encountered this situation multiple times."
"The security features could be better."
"Enhancing the capacity would be a welcome improvement."
"Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do."
"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks. What we are missing there are wizards. For example, I have two applications, and I want one application to be prioritized against the other. In such a case, a wizard for assigning policies to a service without configuring each step by hand would be very helpful. There should be an overhaul of the GUI of the conductor. The functionality they have got in the Mist portal should be baked into the conductor itself. It would be really great, but as we all know, that won't happen."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance."
"Juniper Session Smart Router can improve the integration for Wi-Fi devices and add additional Sassy deployments."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is more expensive compared to other solutions."
"The pricing of Juniper MX Series Routers is okay compared to other technologies."
"$300 to $400 is the hardware cost and for licensing cost, it may be around, for support and all, $100 per year."
"I would rate it around a three. While I'm not deeply involved in pricing discussions, I believe it is comparatively more affordable than Cisco."
"We have to pay for the device and licensing. The support service requires additional costs."
"The prices for Juniper MX Series Routers are reasonable."
"There is a license for this solution and the price is very competitive. The cost is less expensive than some competitors, such as Cisco. There are additional costs for support licenses."
"An additional license can be purchased for support of a next-generation firewall."
"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."
"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise8
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Juniper MX Series Routers?
The areas of Juniper MX Series Routers that have room for improvement include the port count; for instance, the MX204 has only four 40G or 100G ports, which is quite limited. While I know there are...
What is your primary use case for Juniper MX Series Routers?
I work with an internet service provider in Uganda and have experience working with Juniper MX Series Routers, as we use Mikrotik, Juniper, and Cisco routers on our infrastructure. We have a mix of...
What advice do you have for others considering Juniper MX Series Routers?
The solution is deployed in our organization as hardware and it is on-prem, as we run on on-prem solutions. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Juniper MX Series Routers a nine.
What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?
I did not find any problem with Juniper. Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do.
What is your primary use case for Juniper Session Smart Router?
We are using it as a DNG. This means all subscriber PPPoE sessions or ILS Smart VPN connections are terminated through the access network to this BNG, Uniphore BNG. From there, they are managed.
 

Also Known As

Juniper Enterprise Routers, MX Series, Junos Address Aware
128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

AARNet Pty Ltd, Allegro Networks, Atlantech Online, Availity, Baloise Insurance, Black Lotus, CATV, Blue Box
Revation Systems
Find out what your peers are saying about Juniper MX Series Routers vs. Juniper Session Smart Router and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.