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Aruba Instant On Switches vs Juniper QFabric comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 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

Aruba Instant On Switches
Ranking in LAN Switching
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Juniper QFabric
Ranking in LAN Switching
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Aruba Instant On Switches is 8.1%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper QFabric is 4.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Aruba Instant On Switches8.1%
Juniper QFabric4.8%
Other87.1%
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

MI
System Engineer at University of Kelaniya
Solution offers straightforward management and compatibility, though user support needs direct access improvement
Sometimes some features are not available. For example, the network discovery protocol, LLDP, is not available on some of the switches. When we look at the CLI management, we are considering Cisco, and we are familiar with the Cisco commands. In that case, at the command level, Cisco is much better than Aruba Instant On Switches. Considering the configuration and the CLI level and some of the features, Cisco has better offerings than Aruba Instant On Switches. There are Netgear and some other low-cost switches, but the quality of those is not aligned with our organization's requirements. Overall, I rate Aruba Instant On Switches a seven out of ten.
Suresh Pathipatti - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Information Technology Administrator at Aighospital
Performs well, is easy to set up, and the vendor maintains the product well
QFabric is the core switch. We also have two Brocade switches for the Fibre level The product works fine. It is an excellent product. There are different element systems and different options for each generation of the tool. We maintain the data center and analyze issues. I have no negative…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is suitable for small businesses and small offices."
"I have enjoyed the switches. They are fairly easy to use."
"Its customer service is good."
"We use Aruba Instant On Switches for general communication, sending files, and going to the internet."
"The tool's best part is the commercials. Its pricing is lower compared to other enterprise products. We pitch the product to customers who have budget constraints. Its implementation is plug-and-play."
"The solution is plug-and-play and auto-configured."
"The solution's most beneficial feature is that you obtain A-class equipment for the lowest price."
"The cost and simplicity of the product are its most valuable features."
"The solution is easy to use and has good performance."
"It is known for being agile, flexible, and cost-effective when working with various vendors."
"The 40 gig backbone InterConneX was valuable for our use case. It is even faster now. QFabric has spine-leaf technology or topology, which basically makes every single hop only one hop away in terms of connecting from one device to another. It is a pretty good and robust solution. It works pretty well in terms of scalability, and their technical support is amazing."
"The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability."
"The vendor maintains the product well."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the fabric backplane having upwards of 160 GB of communication. It is a top-of-the-rack solution where you have your directors sitting in the main area and then you have your nodes expanded out to your multiple cabinets. It has a very good design and could be your server backbone."
"Juniper QFabric has various advantages including scalability, simplicity, performance, and flexibility."
"It's user-friendly."
 

Cons

"If they can apply more security features to Aruba Instant On Switches, such as network access control including ClearPass, then that would be great."
"The difficulty with the tool is in the area of troubleshooting."
"Some customers have made complaints about Aruba Instant On Switches' stability."
"In general, mostly in Instant On series, if we could have much more control on the switches, at least. We'd like a CLI access so that, when we want to do some advanced configurations we could."
"Some models need enhancement of the web interface to make management and monitoring easier."
"Instant On Switches' layer 3 and visibility could be improved."
"In the next version, they should add a firewall from a single source."
"You cannot use many VLANs, like VLAN 10, VLAN 20, VLAN 30, and VLAN 100 on Aruba Instant On AP."
"The pricing structure could be more budget-friendly."
"It would be nice if Juniper provided the system integrator with training, similar to that of Cisco."
"The stability needs to be improved."
"Improvements could be made to QFabric's life cycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support."
"I do not use GUI's very much for switch stacks. I am always in the CLI. However, I do know that Juniper in the past has lacked on their GUI's, but they have been working on it."
"Having support for all OpenFlow versions would be beneficial."
"It works too much on rebooting and there is some memory leakage."
"The disruptive upgrade was an issue for us."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is competitive, and there are no supplementary fees."
"If one is very bad, and ten is a very good price, I rate the tool's price as a six."
"Aruba Instant On Switches is not expensive."
"Aruba Instant On Switches is cheaper than Cisco and expensive compared to some Chinese brand products."
"The product is not cheaply priced, especially when compared to the other vendors in the market."
"We pay an annual licensing fee."
"The product has good pricing."
"The pricing is cheap."
"Juniper QFabric is a high-level solution but it could be less expensive."
"The price for Juniper QFabric could improve. There are subscription, maintenance, and add-on feature fees."
"The pricing is high."
"The pricing is high and it is possible to find better pricing option solutions on the market, but the licensing model is quite flexible."
"In terms of price, the QFabric solution is going to be probably in the middle of the road for a fabric solution."
"The price is relatively high, but it offers an advantage over its competitors by providing better performance and functionality."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
University
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Instant On Switches?
The solution has a simple deployment and zero border.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Instant On Switches?
The pricing was good because they do not nickel and dime on costs.
What needs improvement with Aruba Instant On Switches?
Aruba Instant On Switches could be improved by utilizing more AI features. They are starting to use some AI capabilities, though I haven't kept up with developments since I left.
What do you like most about Juniper QFabric?
The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper QFabric?
Juniper QFabric is not overly expensive. Licensing is required for certain features like vRRP, but setting up a virtual chassis does not necessitate a separate license.
What needs improvement with Juniper QFabric?
Improvements could be made to QFabric's lifecycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support. The rapid release cycle and short life span compared to comp...
 

Also Known As

Aruba Instant On 1930 Switches
QFabric
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

KEMET, Vestavia Hills City Schools, Dropbox
MCB Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Instant On Switches vs. Juniper QFabric and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.