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Aruba Instant On Switches vs NETGEAR Switches 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
6.5
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NETGEAR Switches
Ranking in LAN Switching
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (3rd), AV Over IP Switching (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Aruba Instant On Switches is 9.8%, up from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETGEAR Switches is 7.7%, up from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

MashukThakur - PeerSpot reviewer
A centrally managed switches ideal for small and medium businesses but does not have any console access
The solution does not have any console access. For example, if you do not have internet access on your side and you need to configure anything, you should at least have CLI access to do something or manage the solution to put to some IP. It will only work if we have a TSCT on the network. We can port and configure the initial settings before we get the Instant On Switches. I am not working deeply on Instant On devices. I have only installed it in a couple of accommodation sites. Even today, one customer has ordered to install 80 pieces of Instant On. I’ve to order additional 94 access points. I was confused about whether to go with Aruba Instant On or AP-505. Instant On has limited accessibility but AP-505 have cloud or local access on normal infrastructure. This would be better and easier to configure. So, there are further improvements in regard to console access and some limitations with access.
Umang Shah - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient routing and access control with an easy setup
We use NETGEAR Switches for networking, particularly for switch-to-switch connectivity. We connect them with core switches, especially for camera installation NETGEAR Switches have increased the throughput and speed of internal communication, and have improved our network efficiency. The most…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best thing about Aruba Instant On Switches is their cost."
"Instant On Switches' best feature is the 1930, which is stackable."
"The solution is suitable for small businesses and small offices."
"It is a very stable solution."
"The solution's pricing is slightly cheaper than that of Cisco."
"The simplicity of the tool's GUI is good."
"The solution provides GUI control, making it particularly suitable for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and small office/home office (SOHO) networks."
"The cost and simplicity of the product are its most valuable features."
"With this, you literally just log in to a website, see all your clients, all your NETGEAR switches, and you can manage them all right there: the VLANs, powering on and off individual ports, rebooting the whole device, the firmware updates. Everything can be done remotely..."
"Its setup, usage, and access are most valuable. It is a very easy switch to set up."
"We have a wide range of switches for various applications, including a collection specifically designed for ProAV, as well as Multi-gig Switches, which are also quite well-known or unique."
"NETGEAR offers a competitive pricing structure, which is beneficial for cost management."
"Technical support is helpful and quick to respond."
"Their online portal is one of the most useful features. The portal is very user-friendly, so even someone with not a lot of tech experience can go in and see what's going on with the switch."
"The cloud management has just been huge for us. We have 80 clients and they all have switches... With the cloud-managed Insight ones... we know more information without having to do complicated SNMP traps. We get nice emails, we get a web interface, and we're not having to wait for our RMM tools to get SNMP traffic to notify us. We don't have to do complicated configurations."
"NETGEAR offers a competitive pricing structure, which is beneficial for cost management."
 

Cons

"Improvements are required in the product's price. I want it to be cheaper."
"We are interested in acquiring a firewall that provides a comprehensive solution. In other words, we're seeking a firewall that encompasses multiple aspects, such as exceptional switches and active phone functionalities."
"You cannot use many VLANs, like VLAN 10, VLAN 20, VLAN 30, and VLAN 100 on Aruba Instant On AP."
"It is not a very scalable solution."
"They don't have a lot of diagnostics tools, which could be an area for improvement."
"The price has room for improvement."
"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."
"Room for improvement would be if they consolidated administration from multiple locations."
"Centralized monitoring is there, but competitors like Cisco Prime are at a higher level of centralized monitoring."
"The tool's price could be better."
"When the power does go out, or if we do a soft shutdown, some of the transceivers or the monitor don't recognize when it turns back on, so I have to physically unplug it and plug it back in and then it works. We're working with NETGEAR's engineers to figure out why that's happening."
"The scalability and warranty should also be improved."
"It's worked for the most part, but we've had to power cycle a few devices. We've had to ask customers to manually power cycle them with the power cord, after some of the firmware updates. Their updating needs a little improvement."
"They can improve on the commercial part, specifically the cost, as it is higher than other brands."
"One thing I would like to see improved is the response time for technical support."
"There are a lot of systems that are moving into different areas. There are a lot of cloud-based things happening. One nice feature that I've seen in other switches is artificial intelligence on the actual porting. They've got AI technology that will tell you when a port is down. They not only tell you when a port is down; they also tell you when a port is running slower. You can do a cable-fault check, or you can do other checks. It would be nice to have this information in NETGEAR. This feature might already be there in a new release of the NETGEAR's firmware, but I haven't seen it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not cheaply priced, especially when compared to the other vendors in the market."
"Aruba Instant On Switches is not expensive."
"The pricing is quite low compared to other products, which is good for the customer."
"Pricing is competitive, and there are no supplementary fees."
"The solution is the cheapest A-class switch."
"The pricing is cheap."
"If one is very bad, and ten is a very good price, I rate the tool's price as a six."
"I give the price seven out of ten."
"At its price point, nobody else can compare to what NETGEAR is doing at that 10 Gigabit bandwidth level. We are not seeing a lot of 10 Gigabit need right now in the marketplace. Though, we have done a few projects which have required it. We are still sort of at the 1 Gigabit requirement for the majority of our projects. Honestly, NETGEAR's 10 Gigabit offering has a better value than some of the other vendors' 1 Gigabit offering."
"I believe that the pricing is reasonable."
"For the price, they're good. If you look at Ubiquity switches (which have cloud features too) or even the regular NETGEAR GS switches, these are still price-competitive and come with the cloud features, which is just amazing."
"The pricing is very good for 10GbE switches and you get a lot of throughput. It is about 60 percent of the costs of other switches from competitive manufacturers, which is really good."
"NETGEAR pricing is the best on the market by far. I was shocked when I saw what their price came out as for their subscription. It's extremely reasonable."
"We used HPE previously. The reason I switched to NETGEAR was because of pricing differences, which are huge, when you go into 10GB networking... The pricing is quite good... The total cost of the deployment was about 11,000 euros or so. If I had gone with HPE it would have been at least twice as much."
"They are on par with other AV switch manufacturers, e.g., Pakedge, Cisco Small Business Series, and Extreme Networks. Though, they are closer in cost to Extreme Networks. They are more in the mid-range from an AV product price, maybe a bit higher. You can't beat their features compared to other vendors in that product range and capacity. AV specific only, they are mid-range price-wise."
"The solution is expensive. You need to pay the costs one-time."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Instant On Switches?
The solution has a simple deployment and zero border.
What needs improvement with Aruba Instant On Switches?
I have run into a couple of problems with the switches. Recently, one of the newer stacks stopped working and had to be rebooted individually. They don't have a lot of diagnostics tools, which coul...
How do NETGEAR switches compare with Cisco ethernet switches?
NetGear switches have a lot to offer. They have high availability, zero-downtime stacking, L2 and L3 functionality, and are AV-over-IP ready. NetGear switches also have a command line interface and...
Which switches are better - Ubiquiti Unifi or Netgear?
Ubiquiti Unifi offers a great set of features. For starters, it is easy to configure and implement, and also doesn’t require a learning curve because it is easy to use. It is also simple to reconfi...
What do you like most about NETGEAR Switches?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. I have not faced any issues with the product whatsoever.
 

Also Known As

Aruba Instant On 1930 Switches
NETGEAR Insight Managed Switches, NETGEAR GC Series, NETGEAR M Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

KEMET, Vestavia Hills City Schools, Dropbox
Blaze Networks
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Instant On Switches vs. NETGEAR Switches and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.