Arista Campus LAN Switches vs Cisco Nexus comparison

Arista and Cisco are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Arista is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.3, while Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6. Arista holds a 2.0% mindshare in LS, compared to Cisco’s 8.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Arista users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Read 7 Arista Campus LAN Switches reviews

214 Views
118 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus

Read 105 Cisco Nexus reviews

1,564 Views
1,090 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Cisco Nexus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Arista Campus LAN Switches and Cisco Nexus compete in the network switching market. Cisco Nexus generally has an advantage due to its advanced capabilities, while Arista is appealing for its cost-effectiveness and support.

Features: Arista Campus LAN Switches excel in programmability, easy integration with cloud systems, and a stable operating system. Cisco Nexus offers comprehensive security features, scalability, and modular flexibility, making it a versatile choice.

Room for Improvement: Arista could improve in offering more advanced security features, enhancing its scalability, and expanding its feature set to match competitors. Cisco Nexus might benefit from simplifying initial setup, reducing cost complexity, and streamlining the integration processes with third-party solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Arista is recognized for its straightforward deployment process and robust customer service, ensuring hassle-free integration. Cisco Nexus, although offering extensive support options, can present complex deployment scenarios requiring more technical expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Arista Campus LAN Switches are known for competitive setup costs and favorable ROI due to lower operational expenses. Cisco Nexus might have higher initial costs owing to extensive features but justifies the expense through long-term performance and value, often resulting in higher ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus

April 2025

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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

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Ranking in LAN Switching

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Nexus

Ranking in LAN Switching

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

105

Ranking in other categories

Data Center Networking (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Arista Campus LAN Switches is 2.0%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 8.9%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

LAN Switching

Featured Reviews

MarekSzafrański

Senior Core Network Engineer at Eurofins

Functions efficiently and is cheaper than what its competitors offer

In general, the product works fine and is efficient. It was mainly used by someone else in my company, and I just used to operate it The solution's most valuable feature is its stability because Arista falls in an industry that is very similar to Cisco. If the engineer knows Cisco's solution,…

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Joe Benítez

Systems Engineer at GAD Municipal de Guayaquil

Offer high performance capabilities and enables efficient data transmission and processing

Before Nexus, I used to have Catalyst 6500 switches. Those 6500 series chassis gave us a lot of problems. Too many problems, actually. And we had a Cisco ASA firewall blade within those chassis. And they were running outdated software. So, in fact, it was the firewall blade that caused us too many problems instead of the chassis. The chassis itself was working well and performing fine, but the firewall card was not suitable for our needs. That was one aspect. Additionally, those chassis had been in operation for more than five years. As we are a local government, we have a policy to renew hardware every five years. That's because we need to maintain all the hardware and software in the latest versions and keep up with the technology lifecycle of the technology we use.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"QoS is the most valuable feature because our clients work with VOIP and Critical applications."

"The technology is scalable as much as you want."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its stability because Arista falls in an industry that is very similar to Cisco."

"The CloudVision Portal allows us to centrally manage all of our Arista products."

"I use the solution for connectivity in data centers and LANs, providing Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity based on network needs."

"The feature sets are pretty cool. They've got almost everything that the competition offers."

"Cisco Nexus is a stable solution."

"Cisco is refining the features all the time and you can see this in all the different vendors."

"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 feature is the Bluetooth console."

"Cisco Nexus and Cisco Catalyst have processing power and offer good utilization of Cisco devices."

"The initial setup is easy."

"It speeds up the network data transfer time."

"We have a much more stable network now using the Cisco Nexus."

More Cisco Nexus pros

Cons

"I think there's still room for improvement. Arista Campus LAN Switches are not highly scalable as they are hardware-based. If hardware requirements exceed capacity, the product needs to be changed, which can impact service."

"The complex setup phase is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"One of the issues that we have been faced with here in Brazil is that we don't have any list times for delivery."

"We have to renew the license every three years, which can be a challenge for customers. Arista, like other vendors, now follows a license-based system."

"It would be ideal if the solution was less expensive."

"I would like to see a version available with eight or sixteen ports."

"In the next release of this solution, I would like to see a focus on backplane deployment, so you can stack more."

"The interface integration of Cisco Nexus with AI can be improved for better infrastructure management."

"The implementation process could be easier, which is something that should be improved."

"I would like to see more granularity."

"I would like to see more automation and for it to be easier to use."

"It would be ideal if there was better integration with various other platforms."

"The installation process lasted too long, taking 16 to 24 hours for full completion."

"The only thing to improve is to continue to get better."

More Cisco Nexus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is not that good, but our clients value the solution despite the price."

"The only licensing costs are for CloudVision, although the upfront price of the device is not cheap."

"The licensing fees for this solution are approximately $800,000 USD annually."

"Our licensing costs for this solution are approximately $100K a year for the switching part."

"Licensing is annual or every three years. We were one of the big customers, and we used to get good prices, but the cost of the support can be improved."

"The license on a yearly basis is $200,000."

"The license for Cisco Nexus is one year to three years, in this case for the SMARTnet. It is a price per unit, in terms of this specific appliance."

"It's around $160K a year for our license."

"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."

"In most cases, there is a need to secure perpetual licenses to be able to use the product. When I set up the product, there isn't just a one-time cost that is involved."

More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

24%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arista Campus LAN Switches?

I have cross-checked because this network is a ten-gig network. We are using the multigig switches, which Cisco also has. We found that Cisco's cost is 100%, while the cost of the multi-gig switche...

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What needs improvement with Arista Campus LAN Switches?

I think there's still room for improvement. Arista Campus LAN Switches are not highly scalable as they are hardware-based. If hardware requirements exceed capacity, the product needs to be changed,...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Arista Campus LAN Switches?

I use the solution for connectivity in data centers and LANs, providing Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity based on network needs.

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco Nexus?

The product's initial setup phase is very easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?

The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers. Despite the cost, it offers valuable features and services.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?

When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable. Initially, the codes I received through ACI were qui...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 52% of the time

More Arista Campus LAN Switches Competitors

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 44% of the time

Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 11% of the time

ExtremeSwitching vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

LAN Switching

March 2025

Download Arista Campus LAN Switches product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus

April 2025

Download Cisco Nexus product report

Overview

Arista Campus LAN Switches are the perfect network solution for your most demanding workloads.With native support for VMware Virtualization and hundreds of Linux applications integrated into hardware platforms designed to meet the stringent power and cooling requirements of today's most demanding data centers, Arista delivers the most efficient and best performing 10Gb Ethernet platforms.

Arista

The Cisco Nexus family of switches is designed to meet the stringent requirements of the next-generation data center. Not simply bigger or faster, these switches offer the following characteristics: infrastructure that can be scaled cost-effectively and that helps you increase energy, budget, and resource efficiency, transport that can navigate the transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet and unified fabric and can also handle architectural changes such as virtualization, Web 2.0 applications, and cloud computing and operational continuity to meet your need for an environment where system availability is assumed and maintenance windows are rare if not totally extinct.

Cisco

Sample Customers

University of Winchester, AWE, picturemaxx, Medical Mutual, Leonix, CloudEra, National Physical Laboratory, Tri-State G&T, AIS, Morph, SingTel, SDSC, BBC

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

Buyer's Guide

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus

April 2025

Free Report: Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus

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