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Arista Networks Platform vs Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 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

Arista Networks Platform
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (2nd)
Juniper EX Series Ethernet ...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Arista Networks Platform is 3.1%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches is 2.8%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches
 

Featured Reviews

MarekSzafrański - PeerSpot reviewer
Affordable for enterprise-sized companies
Speaking about whether the product enhanced our company's data center scalability, I would say that it was a solution that was used in a banking company, where it served as a replacement for Cisco. Though Arista Networks Platform is similar to Cisco IOS CLI, I feel that the former product offers better prices compared to the latter tool. Arista Networks Platform office is more efficient at a lower cost. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. The tool is stable and cheaper than Cisco. I would say that Arista Networks Platform is 100 percent compatible with the existing infrastructure in my company. The impact of the tool's network telemetry on our company's troubleshooting practices was just good for the scope for which I need the product. I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.
PRADIPJOSHI - PeerSpot reviewer
Virtual chassis technology enhances connectivity and simplifies management
Juniper EX series switches offer great technology, particularly their Virtual Chassis technology, which is an excellent feature for stacking switches and functions like a single virtual switch. The EX series provides a separation of control, management, and data planes, reducing the attack surface area, ensuring a lesser extent of vulnerability. The PoE budget is commendable, and they manage connectivity effectively.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"They support open standard features."
"The most valuable features of Arista include low latency, scalability, and sustainability of the products."
"Arista Networks Platform offers straightforward deployment, and has good features. Support for the platform is also good."
"The platform is easy to scale."
"The best part is the single operating system that they have. Regardless of your model, it's the same operating system functioning across the board, which means you don't have to worry about backward compatibilities between your older switches and the new ones that you deploy."
"The solution is scalable."
"I like the spine as a leaf model and low latency. The hardware is robust and meets expected latency in all environments, mainly if you belong to the media or trading industry. For multicast-based solutions, Arista is number one."
"It is very stable. It has good hardware and very stable code. It provides good value for its price. They are a very lean type of organization, so they are very responsive, and they're able to focus more on their platform versus having multiple products out there."
"The solution is scalable. It supports my five-year expansion plan. I could expand without a problem."
"The solution has a high level of network functionality."
"The thing that sets Juniper apart from most switches is that when you're in the command line and you make a configuration change, you just write the command and then say "commit confirmed minutes". For example, I'm configuring a switch here in my office, which is five miles away, and I say, "commit confirmed 5". If I can't get back to the interface within five minutes to be able to make sure the switch came up, it rolls back to the previous configuration. This way I do not get locked out, or the switch doesn't get messed up because of the incorrect configuration. That's an automatic feature, which is pretty slick. I haven't seen that feature with other vendors that I've worked with. That's probably my most favorite feature."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches' most valuable feature is the Juniper-Mist cloud, which facilitates management of the switches and access points."
"The solution is easy to use and has good integration."
"It is easy to configure, and there are three routing switches."
"Compared to Cisco, Juniper offers better stability and low prices."
"The virtual Chassis feature for stacking is good in general, with high bandwidth for the link, which is good."
 

Cons

"Arista Networks is currently less popular as they were initially more focused on data centers than campus networks. They should expand further into campus networks."
"Currently, Arista is too costly for its customers."
"A weakness would be that in our company, we don't have many people within our team who support the product because there are different vendors, and most of them are not tier-one vendors, so the skills required sometimes are just not there."
"The solution needs to accommodate new features."
"The overall price of the Arista Networks Platform is expensive. It should be reduced."
"In my opinion, the solution for network monitoring is quite expensive."
"They should have a more stable code."
"Arista Networks Platform should focus on improving the compatibility or integration with Cisco solutions."
"It would be nice to have a more available list of modules that you can get for this solution."
"Wireless and monitoring definitely could be improved."
"Their web GUI interface needs to be a lot better, especially when compared to HP. The command line is good, but you have to know how to get around it. The GUI is clunky and very slow."
"The management platforms for the network need improvement."
"Juniper EX Series could improve the process and ease of updating the software. It is a difficult process."
"The Virtual Chassis Fabric is kind of complicated to troubleshoot sometimes. On the MPLS side, they're good — they're fine for the pseudo-wires and stuff—but they need more work on the LAN. It is difficult to troubleshoot their LAN technologies like Virtual Chassis."
"They could provide better security tools."
"The initial setup of switches is not that simple."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product price as seven out of ten."
"Arista is very expensive. Not everybody is in a position to spend $70,000 to $80,000 for one switch."
"The customer price for an Arista router is approximately $7,000 USD, while Cisco's is around $18,000."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten where ten is high price and one is low price."
"There is an annual license required to use the Arista Networks Platform."
"It is pretty pricey for a networking platform. It is on par with Cisco."
"Network devices are generally expensive. However, during the evaluation, Arista was the most inexpensive vendor."
"Specific tools definitely require a license for the subscription. But we are not using these tools in our environment. In terms of licensing, you need to spend approximately $10,000 per month."
"The pricing of Juniper Ethernet Switches compared to equivalent switches from Aruba, Cisco, and others, Juniper Ethernet Switches are priced a little higher. They are approximately 20 to 50 percent higher. When we receive a new range of models, the prices can come down. The price can also vary by region."
"The price could be cheaper."
"There is a need to make a payment towards the perpetual licensing model offered by the product and also towards the subscription-based model for hardware replacement."
"For the QFX5000 Juniper switches, the price is about $10,000, but they would probably sell it for $1,000. Nobody can beat Juniper's pricing when it comes to switches. Juniper out-prices everybody, but they get you on the back end, maintenance, service port, and service contract."
"The pricing for the support is very high."
"Relatively affordable per switch."
"It's was $100,000 per year."
"Juniper costs less than the competition. As a comparison, Cisco is 33% more."
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Comparison Review

it_user82779 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 29, 2014
Benefits of Juniper vs Cisco
Both are decent products. I prefer Juniper for the following reasons: 1) Cleaner separation of data plane from control plane. Higher end Cisco devices are better at this but most of the lower end products still seem to be more integrated than I like. 2) The Hierarchical config design means I can…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Educational Organization
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Arista Networks Platform?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arista Networks Platform?
Arista products are perceived as costly, especially compared to competitors like Cisco.
What needs improvement with Arista Networks Platform?
Currently, Arista is too costly for its customers. Feature-wise, it addresses most customer requirements. However, we sometimes face challenges when integrating with proprietary protocols and solut...
In terms of ethernet switches, would you go with Cisco or Juniper?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Cisco or Juniper Ethernet switches were the better fit for us. We decided to go with Juniper. Juniper ethernet switches are a lesser-known...
What advice do you have for others considering Juniper Ethernet Switches?
Juniper EX model is ok for the campus network as the ex4300 is EOL in a few years and the new ex4400 is the standard. Now for the QFX model, 5k/10k in CRB mode IP fabric Ethernet switching is horri...
What is your primary use case for Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches?
Throughout my experience, I've deployed Juniper EX switches in various environments, from small enterprise networks to large-scale data centers. In every instance, they have consistently delivered ...
 

Also Known As

7000 Series
Juniper Ethernet Switches
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Internet Services
BlackLotus, Staminus, Community Bank, BAS Group, Cloud Dynamics, Privalia, Fluidata, and Tesla Motors.
Find out what your peers are saying about Arista Networks Platform vs. Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.