MikroTik Routers and Switches Reviews

We primarily use our MikroTik devices as layer three routers.

The best part about MikroTik Routers is the price.

The biggest thing that needs improvement is the support. There are lots of bugs but you can find workarounds for these. However, without support for professional use, you don't know when it fails and why it fails. You have to troubleshoot on your own.

I have been using MikroTik Routers for two or three years.

The stability is poor because it's dropping packets. As you control it through the GUI, the device is starting to drop packets, so it is not stable.

The scalability is hard for me to judge at this point.

Technical support is bad overall. However, when I contacted them last, the answer to that question was straightforward. It was a little bit confusing because they were talking about CPU queues versus hardware queues, and my English is not perfect, but I did get a straightforward answer after the second email.

If you read the manual and the documentation carefully, and also research the Wiki support sites, the setup can be quite straightforward.

The length of time for deployment depends on the type of scenario and what you want to do.

To have a working solution it can take weeks. You have to test all of the limits because if you don't know your limits then you don't know your product area. For example, can a device be placed when serving a 1G internet? Knowing the limits and testing the limits is a time-consuming activity. It can take one to two weeks depending on what you are testing.

The implementation can be done without the help of a consultant. You can do it on your own.

The technical features in MikroTik are not mentionable because it is a low-cost solution. There is no service, support, or proper training. We are using them because our competitors are using them, and we have to stay competitive.

The only real value of MikroTik is the price and I would not recommend this solution for any other reason. If you can get another device from a bigger company at a similar price then I would do that because the support is going to be better. Proper support is important.

I would rate this solution a five out of ten.

We use this product to route traffic with dynamic routing protocols like BGP. We also use it for filtering traffic and making network translations to provide access to services that are behind it. In this regard, it acts as a firewall.

It hosts a lot of B2B sessions with our internal and external peers.

MikroTik provides us a quick way to give access to internal services from outside of our network, and a way to manage those services.

This solution offers features that make it convenient for debugging.

Traffic classification is a very convenient feature.

The flexible IP firewall and IP network address translation make it very easy to give access to internal services. 

I would like to see a cluster feature added, where multiple devices can be configured and managed as one. One is in a standby state while the other is active, and if one fails then the other takes over.

The stability can be improved.

We have been using a MikroTik router for seven or eight years.

This solution is not very stable. I would rate stability at seven out of ten.

The scalability is good and we have 50 or 60 users, in addition to perhaps five technical staff who can connect devices and configure them.

Technical support responds very quickly. However, we very often catch bugs that they are not aware of, which is bad. MikroTik should be finding these bugs itself.

We are happy with the communication from technical support, but they should improve with respect to testing and releasing updates.

The initial setup is very straightforward and easy. It will take several hours to set up and have it work properly.

The implementation was done by my team.

There is no licensing fee in addition to the hardware, but we do pay an annual fee for support.

I would recommend this solution for those who don't need a very stable solution. You will not have zero-downtime provided by MikroTik. Also, if you need clustered routers then this solution will not work. However, if you are willing to update several times a month with several minutes of downtime while upgrading and rebooting, then it will be fine.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this solution is to write the network plan out before implementing changes. Then, go only by the steps of the plan, and do not deviate.

Overall, it is a very good solution with a lot of features.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are a system integrator and this is one of the solutions that we implement for our customers.

Our primary customers are Fiber to the home (FTTH), which are small customers who are connecting by fiber.

We have found this solution is quite robust and there are a lot of features in a small device.

The dimensions of this unit are quite good.

You do not need extra licensing to use all of the features.

In the Israeli market, we are in need of Hebrew support. We would like a Hebrew GUI or something that can translate it. We need this because when we remotely support end-users, they do not always speak English. Hebrew would be lovely.

There are a lot of issues regarding the power supply.

The interface for this solution is in need of a dashboard. Thinking about somebody who is in control of hundred of small routers, they need a way to manage all of them.

This solution is ninety percent stable. The defects are coming from instability with the power system, and there are a lot of issues regarding that.

Most of the errors occur when the system shuts down incorrectly. Otherwise, there are not a lot of bugs.

For our purposes, we are not concerned with scalability. 

We do not use technical support for this solution. We read articles and have been able to do the support ourselves. We do use the forums and the internet for searching for answers.

I am familiar with solutions by Aruba. The MikroTik routers and switches are not as well known in the Israeli market.

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward.

The deployment takes approximately twenty minutes for the technician to implement one house. It is a matter of connecting and doing some basic enrollment.

Our technician performs the deployment for our customers.

In our last project, we used two hundred units and the price was approximately 500 Shekels ($140 USD).

My advice is that this is a small package with huge features and you should try it on your own.

The biggest lesson that I learned from this solution is that we underestimated the power and value of MikroTik. We primarily implemented Cisco and Aruba solutions, but since then, we have found that MikroTik can be used in place of these bigger brands.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use this solution for normal routing, as well as load balancing for internet traffic. I have a dual internet load balancing setup.

This is an on-premises solution.

The improvement is that we can have two different internet service providers offering 2Mbps each, and you can combine the bandwidth to make it 4Mbps. You can also achieve multiple failovers.

The most valuable feature is controlling the bandwidth. This is helpful because the users' bandwidth requirements keep changing, and we have three connections to handle the data.

The wireless switches are good.

Configuring load balancing requires a very ground-level configuration that is not easy for normal users.

The user interface allows you to do a lot of things, but it is not user-friendly. 

This solution is quite stable.

Right now, I am not using it for VPN.

I have not contacted technical support for this solution. If there is a problem then I try to find solutions for the problem online.

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

When I first starting working with this solution I found the initial setup to be complex, but now I think that it's easy. It takes approximately ten minutes to deploy, although if you want to set up more advanced features like load balancing then it might take thirty minutes.

One person is suitable for both deployment and maintenance.

I performed the deployment myself.

This product is a one-time purchase.

This is a great product that gives you a lot of good features at that price.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for high performance, low-cost routers and for low-cost wifi environments where we need specific configurations.

The cost and versatility are the solution's most valuable features. You can do anything with them if you know how to. The solution has a whole portfolio of routing features available.

You don't need to buy special licenses for the solution. You have everything there. The configuration capabilities are good too. They're very flexible. 

The solution doesn't fit every need. There are lots of things you cannot do. There is no management and there is no controller in wireless. It's not a real whole network. You have to work them into other solutions. Mikrotik is mostly a standalone solution and you have to manage how it relates to other solutions, unlike Cisco, which is something that you can easily put into an ecosystem.

They could improve their product if they set, for instance, a controller for wireless LAN.
That would allow them to really have something more than an access point.

The solution isn't really scalable. Each machine has a purpose, and while you can swap it out for a bigger one, you have to create a new design. They're stand-alone products. There is not a flow of products that brings you to the next step easily.

I haven't reached out to technical support myself, however, my colleagues have, and my understanding is they were able to resolve the issues. They were satisfied with the level of support they received. However, it was a process to get in touch with them, share the problem, and work together to solve it.

The initial setup is complex. Users will need to do a bit of research before implementing the product. You must prepare and understand how to set each parameter. You couldn't use Mikrotik if you're not certified or have a deep knowledge of the solution.

We use a few different solutions. We are installing big networks with Aruba and use Extreme Networks as well. Which solution we ultimately use depends on the project itself.

We buy from wholesalers, but we don't have a special selling agreement with anyone.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten when it fits. It's useless if it doesn't fit. If it fits, I don't think there's a better product when you are looking at price-performance. Overall, I'd rate them nine out of ten. Any requirement would be fulfilled from Aruba or from Cisco, but not necessarily from Mikrotik, which is why I don't give them a perfect score.

The radius and wireless features are the most valuable aspects of the solution.

The queuing functionality needs improvement. The initial setup could be simplified.

The stability of the solution is great.

The scalability of the solution is very good.

We've used technical support a few times and have always found them to be quite good.

We have previously used Cisco and HP solutions.

If you are not familiar with the solution, the initial setup can be a bit complex. It's quite different from other solutions. Deployment times vary, but it should only take a few hours.

I handled the implementation myself.

The cost of the solution is okay. It's not too expensive.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. If they made it a bit easier for new users to implement, I would rate it higher.

Our primary use case for this solution is to provide wireless internet service.

This solution provides our service at a low cost with excellent quality.

The most valuable feature is that you can do anything on all platforms.

The GUI is also good, and the CLI is excellent.

Wireless throughput has not kept up with the competition.

The two most valuable features to me are the firewall and traffic bonding.

The interface could be more user friendly and more intuitive in terms of what information or features are found where. I also wish there was a dashboard, kind of like landing page with all the basic system analytics.

We've had no issues with deployment.

We've had no issues with stability.

We've had no issues with scalability.