Arista Campus LAN Switches vs Cisco Nexus comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Arista and Cisco are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Arista is ranked #7 with an average rating of 10.0, while Cisco is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. Arista holds a 5.6% mindshare in LS, compared to Cisco’s 10.5% 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 8 Arista Campus LAN Switches reviews

1,454 Views
1,454 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus

Read 108 Cisco Nexus reviews

6,860 Views
3,567 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Arista Campus LAN Switches

Cisco Nexus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

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: November 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus

November 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 921,028 peers since 2012

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

7th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Nexus

Ranking in LAN Switching

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

108

Ranking in other categories

Data Center Networking (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Arista Campus LAN Switches is 5.6%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 10.5%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

LAN Switching Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Nexus	10.5%
Arista Campus LAN Switches	5.6%
Other	83.9%

LAN Switching

Featured Reviews

Denis Malinovtsev

Chief Technology Officer at ictbit

Unified monitoring has transformed campus deployments and provides rapid EVPN-VXLAN rollouts

Regarding improvements to Arista Campus LAN Switches, nothing comes to mind about the switches themselves; they are really fast and have all the technologies and protocols that exist in the market. However, on the management system, I would improve it because as a network engineer, I want a chatbot that can communicate in a native language with the monitoring system to get answers regarding my network faults. There are no problems particularly with the product, but there is room for improvement regarding licensing and the chatbot for all Arista products.

Read full review

Fakhar Mahmood

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The management portal has improved the way our organization functions."

"The template functionality saves a lot of time and man-hours, which results in cost and time savings."

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

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

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

"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 Software Defined switch architecture, runs optimized 2-tier network instead of traditional 3-tier network (Core, Distribution and Access) gives you efficiency and savings."

More Arista Campus LAN Switches pros

"The scalability of the solution is well beyond anything I would ever need."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is network visibility; it touches all of the switches, becomes the core switch, and all of the devices connected to it route towards it so we are able to see all of the devices."

"It is good because when we went to purchase this, we did not have all the information and knowing that there are a lot of options with all those differences, we had some issues, but it is obvious that this solution is going to do everything that we need."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is to segregate the network."

"I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it; it's very good."

"The most valuable features of the solution are capacity and scalability."

"Nexus provides inner redundancy. It allows us to perform updates on individual switches, while still maintaining reliability and uptime on the server."

"It is tried and tested in our network, and it works well."

More Cisco Nexus pros

Cons

"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."

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

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

"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 licensing cost is pretty heavy. That is something that they need to definitely work upon."

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

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

"I do think they could improve their licensing model. Today, I need to pay for a license, for a switch, for support, and it costs money; it is not cheap."

"Multi contexts would be nice to have to separate different tenants logically and securely."

"This solution should be made more affordable."

"The solution is more expensive than other options on the market."

"They need to understand that when we call them and have an issue, it's our production and sometimes they want us to do repairs that would cause other issues. That's the biggest problem."

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

"The initial setup was pretty complex, mostly because of our environment, having to do multi-context. That's where you have a lot of different logical routes that are in one physical device, and it can get kind of complex trying to think about how to set all that up. You really have to whiteboard it out a lot."

"The product could be updated more frequently for other phone model support."

"The code quality for this solution has gotten worse and needs improvement."

More Cisco Nexus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"The solution is expensive."

"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."

"The price of this solution is good when compared to others in the market."

"Our licensing costs for this solution are approximately $200 USD per month."

"It's worth the money we're paying for Nexus."

"Cisco's licensing structures can be complex across different technologies, for example, unified communications."

"I don't like the Smart Licensing models that Cisco uses."

"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."

More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which LAN Switching solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

921,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Outsourcing Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	83

Questions from the Community

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

Regarding pricing, it is not cheap. While it is an enterprise solution, comparing it to low-level switches like Fortinet and Netgear, it is much more expensive. However, comparing it to Cisco and J...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Arista Campus LAN Switches?

See all answers

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

I work as a consultant and integrator, using Arista Networks platform in my customers' networks. I deal with switches by Arista, which is mostly what we use Arista for. I am familiar with Arista Ca...

See all answers

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

Cisco Nexus switches are generally priced at the higher end of the market, but their performance, scalability, and reliability make them a strong option for enterprise data centers. The overall cos...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus?

Cisco Nexus is used in data centers with a simple Nexus OS deployment model. In our environment, we do not use programmability with Cisco Nexus. The switches are used very basically in our infrastr...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco FabricPath vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 25% of the time

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 21% of the time

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 10% of the time

HPE ProCurve vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 8% of the time

Juniper QFabric vs Arista Campus LAN Switches

Compared 7% of the time

More Arista Campus LAN Switches Competitors

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 12% of the time

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 9% of the time

Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 8% of the time

ExtremeSwitching vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 7% of the time

Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch LAN Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 6% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

LAN Switching

October 2026

Download Arista Campus LAN Switches product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus

November 2026

Download Cisco Nexus product report

Overview

Arista Campus LAN Switches offer efficient network integration and management, enhancing LAN deployment with superior telemetry and streamlined designs, delivering scalability and cost-efficiency.

Designed for effective deployment in network environments, Arista Campus LAN Switches utilize a Software Defined architecture that enhances network efficiency and provides savings with scalability. Responsible for fast EVPN-VXLAN deployment, these switches ensure superior telemetry capabilities while integrating seamlessly into networks through Arista EOS and open APIs. Their Quality of Service supports VOIP and critical applications. With CloudVision management and template functionality, deployment is simplified, reducing the need for excess hardware. Despite these advantages, enhancements in native language chatbot management, port options, and license renewal costs are desired by users. Scalability is affected by hardware constraints, and there is a call for faster delivery times and simplified setup.

What are the key features of Arista Campus LAN Switches?

CloudVision Management: Simplifies network operations through a centralized management platform.
EVPN-VXLAN Deployment: Facilitates rapid Layer 2 and 3 connectivity across the campus.
Superior Telemetry: Provides comprehensive network monitoring and insights.
Arista EOS & Open APIs: Ensures flexibility and interoperability within diverse networks.
Quality of Service: Optimizes performance for VOIP and critical applications.
Template Functionality: Reduces deployment costs through automated configurations.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces the number of switches required, saving operational costs.
Scalability: Enables effective network growth through software-defined capabilities.
Interoperability: Allows cohesive integration within existing network setups.
Productivity Boost: Simplifies maintenance and upgrades, leading to increased productivity.

Consultants and integrators utilize Arista Campus LAN Switches to enhance customer network environments, supporting both campus and data center needs. These switches are employed effectively by resellers for clients like community centers and are integral for system engineers managing Layer 2 and 3 connectivity. Deployment is streamlined using a controller-based template for efficient configuration across multiple sites.

Arista

Cisco Nexus delivers flexibility, scalability, and performance for data centers, offering stability and ease of management. The integration with third-party security and high port density support are key features, making it ideal for core network infrastructures.

Cisco Nexus stands out in data centers for backbone switching and network management, known for its modularity and Virtual Port Channels. Organizations value its capacity for handling large data volumes and automation capabilities. The system's redundancy features enhance reliability in complex network environments. Despite its strengths, technical support, licensing complexity, and integration require improvement. Users benefit from features like Active/Active FEX connectivity and wish for enhancements in routing support, interface usability, and documentation. Cost concerns and port overheating issues are noted, with calls for better training and simplified configurations.

What are the key features of Cisco Nexus?

Modularity: Enables customization and upgradability.
Virtual Port Channels (VPCs): Offers resilience and high availability.
Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF): Supports routing domains within a network device.
High Port Density: Allows connection of multiple devices in a compact space.
Automation: Simplifies network management and operations.
Redundancy Features: Provides network reliability and uptime.

What benefits and ROI should users expect from Cisco Nexus?

Scalability: Supports growing network demands.
Stability: Offers a reliable operational environment.
Efficiency: Enhances data center connectivity and management.
Security Integration: Works seamlessly with third-party security solutions.
High Performance: Optimizes data handling and throughput.

In enterprise settings, Cisco Nexus is essential for switching, routing, and server connection aggregation. It's integral in spine-and-leaf architectures for scalability in multi-tenant environments, often integrated with hyper-converged technology to ensure reliable, secure server connectivity. Implementations span industries, each leveraging its strength for improved network efficiency.

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

November 2026

Free Report: Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus

Find out what your peers are saying about Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

921,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Arista Campus LAN Switches vs. Cisco Nexus report.

See our list of best LAN Switching vendors.

We monitor all LAN Switching reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.