MikroTik Routers and Switches Reviews

So the company I work for sells a guest Wi-Fi platform for restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels, etc. 

Predominantly, we configure MikroTik Routers and Switches with our platform and then integrate them into the existing network of the businesses.

The stability of the market and the ability to remotely control them are the most valuable features for me.

It would be nice if the interface was easier to use. It's probably one of the most complicated user interfaces to use, but then again, MikroTik routers are also the most flexible routers to use. So I guess it's a price you pay for using a product that's capable of doing pretty much anything.

I have been using this solution for three years.

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten, it's very scalable.

We're continually adding new locations to our client base all the time. We manage more than 4500 locations globally.

The initial setup is easy now. But when I first started out, it was difficult. The initial deployment of the platform that we use and set up the network was done before I started with the company.

In comparison, especially once you start getting into commercial applications, MikroTik is very affordable. So on the cheaper side of the scale, definitely.

Probably do one of the MikroTik authorized training courses before you start. Overall, I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

I use the tool to block external attempts. 

The ports could be improved, as certain areas may need to be terminated with a greater number of Ethernet ports. We initially faced challenges that hindered our network usage, especially with third-party applications that were not certified or supported. It took some time to streamline and resolve these issues.

I have been using the product for five years. 

We rely on local support and haven't contacted the OEM for support. My company is satisfied with the local support, but they are not flexible enough to provide round-the-clock support. 

Positive

The tool offers a one-time buying option. 

MikroTik Routers and Switches meet our requirements and help us achieve our goals. We can customize them as needed. I would recommend them to small—or medium-sized customers. However, larger enterprises might need more security features and firewalls. 

I rate it a seven out of ten. It's great for small enterprises in industries like healthcare facilities or manufacturing verticals. However, banks may require more specialized solutions due to their specific security needs.

We use the solution to provide the same speed internet to 3,000 users, including students and teachers who are using this in school and college.

The valuable features are the hotspot, network address, registration, and firewall.

MikroTik Routers and Switches lack a user-friendly interface for applications or specific settings. For example, compared to a router from VGG Network, MikroTik's DNS and UI apps might require more technical knowledge to configure easily. While MikroTik offers certified support and clear website guides, some features, like Webex configuration, lack an intuitive interface for automatic setup.

Additionally, MikroTik often requires manual tasks like uploading hotspot tickets and setting up certificates. This can be burdensome, unlike easier solutions like UniFi, especially for monthly updates.

I have been using MikroTik Routers and Switches since 2010.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

MikroTik doesn't have a simple solution. We have to bring a new one to upgrade the CPU's capacity. It's hard to scale.

Around 2,000 users are using the solution.

I rate the solution's scalability a three out of ten.

We use Unifi Switches to deploy and manage access points on-site.

The initial setup is complex.

I rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We are a public sector medium-sized company. We use MikroTik's router part for managing internet circuits, particularly in cases where cost is paramount, ensuring cost-effective access for internet circuits.

The most valuable feature is the price because it's highly cost-effective concerning the functionalities provided within the box.

Improvements could be made in terms of SD-WAN capabilities and zero-touch provisioning.

We’ve been using the solution for the past nine months.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable. We have two customers using the solution.

We opt for Fortinet in complex scenarios due to its SD-WAN and additional features, but for simpler cases, MikroTik Routers and Switches are preferred due to their significantly lower cost.

The initial setup is straightforward. It can be executed within a couple of hours. Only one technical person was required to carry out the task.

The pricing of the solution is significantly lower than other solutions. There are no additional costs involved.

I would recommend the solution because it provides value for money.

We use the solution as a main router for the company. MikroTik is very cheap in our country compared to other products.

The product is simple to use. We chose the solution due to its price.

The initial setup could be easier. It would be great if the tool would be open source.

I have been using the solution for four years.

The tool is stable.

The tool is scalable. Around 300 people are using the solution in our company.

The initial setup was moderately difficult. The deployment doesn’t take long for most devices. Sometimes, there’s a random error or an unpredicted problem that takes two to three hours to resolve.

The tool has a low price.

I would recommend Cisco to people living in the USA and UK. It's more dependable and trustworthy. I would enjoy using MikroTik if it is an open-source product. Overall, I rate the product a six or a seven out of ten.

We use MikroTik's fiber router for Internet access.

I don't like the product's performance. Sometimes, it disconnects my network. Sometimes, when browsing or downloading something, the download rate comes down to zero. I have to use a VPN to check my right to use the Internet. The telecommunication company using MikroTik to control this does not give me satisfaction. I would like to see the product improve its buffering time.

I've used their products for three to four years.

MikroTik should improve the stability of their products.

With scalability, from time to time, I need to replace routers. Thirty to 50 users are using the product.

We used Cisco previously. We switched to MikroTik because it was made compulsory by our telecommunication company. I, however, do not recommend it to be used by internet service providers.

The initial setup is not easy. It took one hour to set up. You cannot set up the product remotely. You have to go to the location. Some ports might be closed. You have to set up the product at the location first and then make some rules to get the connection. After that, you must set up the security, which takes time.

We need two or three technical staff members to deploy and maintain the product. Sometimes more. One administrator, one engineer, and one or two developers.

I have seen a return on investment since we didn't have to pay a licensing fee.

MikroTik makes some policies so we can get it for free. And if you disconnect the service from the telecommunication company, MikroTik asks you to pay a higher price. It's free at the start, but you will pay more and more if you don't like it.

I rate MikroTik routers and switches a seven out of ten. We can't use all the product features due to telecommunications laws in my country.

We use them for running services, especially big PoE services and VLAN routing. We also use them at remote premises to provide quick Wi-Fi. For switching, we use them for regular switching and in places where we need a lot of fiber interfaces.

MikroTik Routers and Switches are very competitively priced, which is important. Also, they perform well and get the job done.

Additionally, I appreciate that they offer both a CLI and a user-friendly GUI for management.

A central management platform would be great.

I have been using this solution for a couple of years. For routers, we use the 1036s and 1016s. For small businesses, we use the 1100s. For very small businesses, we use the Mikrotik 5-port switch, which is the 951. We use the whole range, basically.

MikroTik routers and switches are quite stable. The older OS versions are very stable, but the newer ones like RouterOS 7 are still a work in progress and have had some challenges.

MikroTik routers and switches are quite scalable, but with a centralized management solution, they could potentially be even more scalable.

We have around 5,000 switches in use. We deploy them in small offices with 10 to 20 people and even in enterprise offices with over a hundred people.

We have plans to increase the usage. We use MikroTik a lot due to its price and performance, and it's usually the top choice for our clients for routing and switching.

We usually find answers in online forums, so we haven't dealt directly with their support.

The initial setup is very straightforward. You can typically set them up in about 30 minutes, and we do it in-house.

We do it in-house. We set out a plan, and our technicians take care of setting up the units and putting them online. We often have a senior technician do the final tuning. We have three senior technicians and a couple of junior technicians who help out.

It's definitely worth the investment.

There are no licenses required; you simply purchase the units.

I would definitely recommend using this solution. I would rate it a nine out of ten.

Our clients use it to implement network solutions.

Our clients like the product because it's an open-source solution. The features of the equipment fit all the needs of the customers.

The solution should improve the features of Wi-Fi 6 a little bit.

I have been working with the solution as a distributor for more than ten years.

It's a good product, and I am satisfied with its stability. I rate the product’s stability an eight out of ten.

I rate the scalability an eight to nine out of ten. We can scale it to a large number of endpoints. We have more than 100 users in Portugal. Our clients are medium and enterprise-level businesses.

The support is not very clear. The way they deal with issues is not very good.

Neutral

The solution is easy to install. I rate the ease of setup a nine out of ten.

We took only a few minutes to install the product. We install and configure the solution for our customers. We also provide support and maintenance to customers.

The solution is not expensive. The pricing is good. There are no additional charges associated with the product. The product’s license is for life. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten.

I am working with all the versions of the product. We have buyers on the market for the solution. People who want to use the product must be confident because the product is good and has a competitive price compared to other vendors. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

The solution is used for site-to-site VPN, and it can also be used as a router as a CPE. So, we normally give them the solution so that their NetLog and everything can be captured in the server because, ultimately, it is a requirement of the Department of Telecommunication in our country. For all the leased line users, we are supposed to keep the NetLog. MikroTik is mainly used by some SMEs, and more specifically, it is for SME clients only.

Users of the solution are able to save a lot of things on bandwidth, like, earlier, if they don't have anything to granularize the bandwidth for their end customer. In that case, it was difficult to manage. But, after putting MikroTik in place, they were able to control the use of their internal cost internal users. Also, they are able to manage multiple bandwidth sources using MikroTik.

Load balancing is one of the valuable features of the solution. The best thing, from an end-user perspective, is the GUI, which MikroTik provides vis-a-vis any other routing options. In short, MikroTik provides a very user-friendly GUI option.

The solution needs to be more robust. In case of power fluctuations, MikroTik routers are more vulnerable to malfunctioning. Also, there is an IPDR requirement to which MikroTik does not provide any information when it is used as a NAS, and it has to pass the parameter to the radius, so for a delegated IPv6 Prefix, MikroTik doesn't give any information to the radius. So there, they need to work on something, and they also need to work on IPDR logs using NetFlow.

In the future, I would like to see some more entry-level products with at least two SFP ports. What we normally face is we put the fiber on the ring, but there are no entry-level MikroTik products with two SFP ports inside. Normally, it has four or five copper ports and one SFP only. We need two SFPs to have the proper fiber ring sort of redundancy, which is the need of the hour for MSMEs.

I have been using MikroTik Routers and Switches for more than fifteen years. My company is an ISP. We also have a company offering the solution to government agencies and intermediaries. Also, I am working with MikroTik Routers and Switches Version 7 x.

Personally, we have Huawei as our core router. Compared to Cisco or Huawei, MikroTik is not that reliable, and I would say that without any hesitation.

In India, if you need technical support for MikroTik, there is no official channel partner or anybody who can help you out. Suppose there is anything that is, like, a support, where somebody can open a support ticket and get help. That will probably improve the performance of MikroTik, especially with SMEs where there is no talent available at every office.

In comparison with Huawei or Cisco products, MikroTik offers excellent prices and performance, along with probably the easiest GUI. So, these are the two best USPs of MikroTik, and I will give two thumbs up to them. Now, let MikroTik come out with a more robust mechanism. Also, they need to put in some better power equipment. Apart from that, MikroTik's availability is always a questionable issue because many times, certain models are not available in our country, maybe because of that disturbance of the supply chain, in that pandemic situation, or maybe something other than that. I would also like to highlight that from the 1st of July, all the products deployed in any of the license services deployed have to be MTCTE-certified and trusted telecom-certified products. So I request MikroTik's Indian channel to approach the appropriate authority. In case MikroTik needs any help, we can get them connected to the right people, but get it certified so that MikroTik's business prospects don't get hampered in the future.

Our team is quite familiar with MikroTik with this many years of experience, so there is no such issue in terms of setup. But I would strongly recommend that MikroTik improves the quality of your power sources because there are a lot of cases which I have seen malfunctioning MikroTik in case of power fluctuations. Also, I think MikroTik needs to focus on some local support partners.

We are an ISP. So when we provide the connectivity to any MSME client, maybe a 20 MBPS or whatever. So we select an appropriate model to be deployed, which is pretty fine. Based on the availability, we put that model on their premises, and we connect it to our network. We also configure everything for them, and if they have another service provider, we also help them to configure that as well. There are cases where we have even had a customer configure their BGP as well. For those who have their own AS number, we have helped them to configure their BGP. Also, we have to integrate it all together.

Regarding the staff members to do the deployment and configuration, we have a kind of centralized thing. So if any help is required, we have some experts sitting at our place, and they can help since we already have around more than ten centers spread across the country. We are operating in four different states of this country. So anybody can call a NOC engineer and get it configured.

Regarding the time taken for deployment, it is almost a PnP technology, so it takes hardly ten minutes to configure. The best part, as I said, is the GUI of MikroTik.

Regarding the maintenance part, sometimes it gives some erratic behavior. That's the very key function. So we are unable to deploy it as our core router. I can give you an example where we have an augmentation point in Equinix in Mumbai. All our thirteen centers are connecting to Mumbai first. And from there, we have a couple of upstreams. So, we have three IX connectivities and a few PNIs. We have direct PNI with Google, Facebook, and a few others. However, in the aforementioned areas, we are still skeptical. Our entire team is skeptical about deploying the MikroTik as our core router because we need something more robust and more predictable. MikroTik has not been able to give that kind of confidence to our team even though we have been using it for the last fifteen years.

We can always give a recommendation of the product to others, or if there is any help required, as community members, we can also help any small ISPs who are facing any issue. So we can always be there to help them out. We strongly recommend the solution to any small or medium-sized teams who want to start using it.

I haven't explored the switch much, but considering the routers, I rate the overall solution a seven and a half to eight out of ten, and to be more specific, I would go with an eight out of ten.

Using MikroTik Routers and Switches, I can perform network segmentation for both LAN and Wi-Fi networks, and even for 22-point solutions. Additionally, I can use these devices as a firewall. 

The deployment process of MikroTik routers and switches is very convenient since it is not command-driven and comes with a graphical user interface, making it much easier to operate.

In comparison to Cisco products, which can be challenging to deploy, MikroTik devices were easier to set up and had a much faster turnaround time.

The updates as well as the patches could be improved.

I believe it would be beneficial to automate the process of router patching to avoid the need for manual checks. With automated patching, as long as the router is connected to the internet, it can automatically perform necessary updates. Failing to patch the router can leave me vulnerable to potential security threats.

Currently, my security is vulnerable due to this potential risk.

I would like to see automated updates for the patches.

I have been working with MikroTik Routers and Switches for ten years.

I don't recall the version I started with.

In our country, there is a single internet service provider that has been highly recommended by someone due to the affordability of their router.

I have never contacted technical support.

I have only gone to be afraid to get patches and now patching the updates for the router.

I have implemented several network solutions involving routers, switches, and point-to-point (P2P) connections.

I have used different types of routers, such as TP-Link,  DLink, and Cisco. We switched to MikroTik Routers and Switches due to the cost.

The initial setup was straightforward.

WinBooks, the customized model application, has already been successfully deployed and is considered effective.

Deploying it from your machine was straightforward because you simply connected to the network, had all the necessary network parameters, and then proceeded with the deployment.

We were able to complete the deployment ourselves.

When compared to deploying a Cisco router, the cost is extremely low.

I am confident that there are numerous individuals who use MikroTik, particularly those who own P2P networks.

No fees are required for licensing.

I would suggest that they do not require extensive technical knowledge to deploy it, thanks to the graphical user interface.

This is one task that doesn't need to be repeated, making deployment much faster and easier than that of competitors. Additionally, the solution is highly robust, as the instance I deployed has been running for nearly a decade without issue.

I would rate MikroTik Routers and Switches a nine out of ten.