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Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series 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

Cisco Catalyst Switches
Ranking in LAN Switching
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
178
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (5th), Data Center Networking (1st), AV Over IP Switching (1st)
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Ranking in LAN Switching
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
3.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Switches is 21.8%, down from 30.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is 5.3%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Catalyst Switches21.8%
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series5.3%
Other72.9%
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

AG
Unit Nos at Orange
Reliable support boosts confidence while initial setup complexities highlight improvement areas
Challenges I've encountered mostly involve the RMA part for hardware replacement, which doesn't happen regularly, but sometimes I face challenges due to limited parts in India; they offer different model devices as a stopgap arrangement. It's quite difficult to specify features I would want to see in future updates because that varies from model to model. I would definitely recommend Cisco Catalyst Switches to other users. We do maintenance for Cisco Catalyst Switches. For maintenance, we usually need three people from different regions working as a single team; our engineers handle both projects and maintenance, so there isn't a specific engineer just for maintenance. I work with firewalls and next-generation firewalls. Overall, I would rate the solution as an eight out of ten.
Mahendra Basera - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr.Engineer at Akara Capital Advisor Pvt. Ltd.
Reliable switching has supported secure audits and simplified long-term data center operations
Deploying Dell PowerSwitch N-Series on HA is very simple and easy. If we face any problem, we have our Dell support team to help us during the installation. They provide L2 engineers for supporting us on configuring the basic level configuration, stacking, and peering with others on HA. They have helped us with any faults or hardware issues, and we have taken high level care packs with three hour response time and same day hardware replacement. When we talk about the deployment of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, when we extended our data center from starting from scratch, we had at that time nearly 170 physical servers. Then we virtualized it from mixed hardware, as we were using HCL, HP, or old heavy servers. Dell came to us and gave us a good solution with VMware, storage of Dell, and network devices. During the deployment, there were three team members from Dell and two from myself on the networking side, and one or two members from OS and server side. Almost five to six team members were there during the deployment from a hardware to a virtualized environment. The best advantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that it is very much similar to Cisco. There is a little bit of difference at the command level, and it is easy to handle. It is easy to handle whether it is a CLI base or a GUI base, and it is very easy to configure. It is also reliable. We had a low fault issue, and when we talk of switching level, in a time frame of 17 years, we faced a switching issue only one time, which was a hardware failure. That is it. It is as reliable as Cisco.

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 extremely flexible."
"I've had no problems with the stability of this solution."
"Scalable product."
"We use the VLANs to separate library, office, and individual apartments. With some of the reporting that receive, we're able to take and track down where people like to put in their own wireless routers. Sometimes they will take a DSL modem from AT&T that they brought from home, hook it in backward, and it will give rogue addresses causing issues."
"Technical support is very helpful, even during implementation."
"We have to use the QoS (CBWFQ) function... and it is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco equipment is reliability."
"The new series has lots of great features, it's really lovely. From a management perspective, or a policy creation perspective, which we are seeing in the Catalyst 9000 series it is great."
"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable. It has some appealing intangibles."
"For a customer, it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN the GUI."
"The best advantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that it is very much similar to Cisco, it is easy to handle whether it is a CLI base or a GUI base, it is very easy to configure, and it is also reliable, as in a time frame of 17 years we faced a switching issue only one time, which was a hardware failure, and it is as reliable as Cisco."
"The automated configuration management tools of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series help improve network traffic management."
 

Cons

"Currently, Catalyst is completely proprietary with Cisco. They should have programmability options, through open-source controllers."
"With most of the Cisco devices and models, we faced a slight decrease in speed during the initial setup and while restarting the system"
"Services should be improved."
"I have had a little hiccup working with Catalyst switches. They used a few power integration features but I'm not sure they really resulted in much power saving. But, it caused cross-vendor equipment trouble."
"They should make so that they let users know five to ten minutes before productivity is restored in the case of power loss."
"The price could be better. For Cisco, there is no need for improvement except for the price. It's expensive."
"When you compare it with HPE and Aruba, it should be fancier."
"The tool is not user-friendly."
"The disadvantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that only the booting time is a weak point."
"Customers do not prefer this to connect to multiple cities."
"Instead of competing at the enterprise level with that product, they should probably scale it. With all of the ports, they should develop a good mid-level business to truly scale it and gain adoption before attempting to go after the enterprise."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the overall product a six out of ten from a price perspective since it is an expensive tool."
"The prices of Cisco devices are too high."
"I don't see any price issue with Cisco. Whenever you buy a quality product, you always have a mindset of paying the premium amount. For any good product, you pay a premium amount, but that also means you are going to recover that premium over a period of time in terms of performance."
"The product is quite expensive."
"Try to buy everything you need in bulk purchases and ask Cisco for volume discounts."
"There needs to be some improvement with the Cisco DNA licensing activation process, it is difficult at the moment."
"Not one of the cheapest switches in the market. There are a lot of other cheaper switches, but in terms of availability and reliability, Cisco Catalyst Switches meet all requirements."
"The pricing of Cisco Catalyst Switches could be better in general. There is an annual license required."
"You are selling it to larger customers and in larger environments, where it's a less expensive model than Cisco, which is attempting to use the same approach Arista did, but with a completely different programming language."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
11%
University
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business79
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise79
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Would you recommend replacing a Cisco Catalyst Switch by a D-link one?
Hello Mesfin It depends on the real scenario, the cisco 2960 is a very good device and they usually have routing functions but there are many different models within the same 2960 line, and on the ...
What do you like most about Cisco Catalyst Switches?
We are a vendor for the healthcare sector, especially hospitals, and normally, we use a full Cisco solution for stability, especially for the stability of the Access Points and the security of swit...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Switches?
For pricing satisfaction, I'd say it will be six to seven because Cisco usually is costly compared to other vendors. Regarding pricing, there is indeed room for improvement.
What needs improvement with Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
The disadvantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that only the booting time is a weak point. When we reboot that switch, it takes time. As compared to Cisco, it takes almost three to five minutes,...
What is your primary use case for Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
We are using McAfee XDR solution rather than Cisco XDR. On Cisco products, we are using Cisco routers and Cisco switches. We work with Dell, specifically Dell switches, and we are using PowerEdge i...
What advice do you have for others considering Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is the one we have been working on. There was an advanced Layer 3 configuration on Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, and we have almost every security which can be configured on ...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Catalyst, Catalyst
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Afni, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Del Papa Distributing, Explorer Pipeline, Mindtree, Omaha World Herald, Radio 538, Sony Corporation, Telecom Italia, Telenor Arena
Norwich University of the Arts, Shelby American, City and Islington College
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,103 professionals have used our research since 2012.