No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Rackswitch comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Data Center Networking
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
187
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (1st), Ethernet Switches (3rd), AV Over IP Switching (1st)
Rackswitch
Ranking in Data Center Networking
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Data Center Networking category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Switches is 15.3%, down from 21.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rackswitch is 2.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Center Networking Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Catalyst Switches15.3%
Rackswitch2.5%
Other82.2%
Data Center Networking
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Electrical control system engineer at Dangote petroleum refinery and petrol chemicals
Reliable switching has delivered long‑term uptime, strong PoE support, and predictable performance
Cisco Systems Catalyst Switches are highly regarded for their performance, reliability, and enterprise-grade capabilities. My main reservation, however, is the pricing. The cost of Cisco Catalyst Switches—and Cisco products in general—is relatively high, especially in many African markets where organizations often need to balance budget constraints with required functionality. There are alternative vendors that offer comparable features at a lower price point. While they may not always match Cisco’s ecosystem, stability, or full feature depth, many businesses still choose them because of the significant cost savings. Another consideration is licensing, which can add to the overall total cost of ownership depending on the deployment model and required features. Overall, Cisco Catalyst Switches remain premium enterprise solutions, but when compared with other OEMs, their higher acquisition and licensing costs can be a major deciding factor for cost-conscious organizations.
it_user1068 - PeerSpot reviewer
Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Rackswitch is very easy to use and perfect for small businesses with small budgets.
Rackswitch consumes less power, eliminates delays, has a low latency, has airflow like the one found in servers for cooling purposes at a low cost and are redundant, is flexible, is reliable, and has a high level of performance. They are also scalable and of very high performance caliber with some already made virtualized.Rackswitch is easy to acquire, deploy and manage. It has an OpenFlow feature that minimizes complexity and allows for easy creation of virtualized networks.They are also fault tolerant, multicast and compatible with switches from other vendors.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I recently discovered the DHCP feature. There is a feature with which you can make the core act as a DHCP server, and it will distribute the IPs for every device. I discovered this feature recently, and it is very nice."
"Cisco provides very good support services."
"It works well."
"This platform has enabled reliable connectivity across the entire campus network."
"Cisco Catalyst Switches scale with the growing needs of my organization very well."
"I like the flexibility of this product."
"The product is very strong, much stronger than other options on the market, for example, Dell and HPE, and the software is excellent."
"The greatest benefit for our organization is that our Cisco Catalysts are quite reliable, and we can depend on them."
"Rackswitch consumes less power, eliminates delays, has a low latency, has airflow like the one found in servers for cooling purposes at a low cost and are redundant, is flexible, is reliable, and has a high level of performance."
 

Cons

"The delivery of the product lead time should be improved."
"The product could be cheaper."
"The pricing could be better. Cisco is quite expensive."
"They should also have a graphic interface for the switches too without the command line."
"The technical support, in some cases, should be faster and could improve."
"Cisco Catalyst Switches is an expensive solution and its price could be improved."
"If we have a major problem, fixing it takes two or three days and six to eight engineers from Cisco."
"For zero-touch deployment, we have to work around a little bit initially because the switches are not exactly zero-touch provision ZTP. Currently, I don't see much AI integration with Cisco Catalyst Switches; though they've started, it still needs improvement."
"Rackswitches are very complex and you must be skilled to configure and use them."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has a very high cost, but understandably, due to its very good quality."
"We are a large company and the price is reasonable because we have received a discount. However, the full price is expensive."
"Compared to the price of other solutions such as Huawei and HP, Cisco Catalyst Switches is a cheaper solution."
"The price could be improved."
"Pricing could be cheaper as well."
"It is very pricey. You have to pay for support."
"We must pay a high price for the product."
"There are no licensing fees required."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Center Networking solutions are best for your needs.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business83
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise85
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Switches?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was not all good. Licensing is quite a nightmare in the Cisco world, and I wish we had simplified licensing.
What needs improvement with Cisco Catalyst Switches?
Regarding the impression of end-to-end visibility offered by Cisco, I would love to have more visibility. What I want to see in the future regarding Cisco Catalyst Switches is more integrations bet...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

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
Altus IT, SL-Rasch, COMAS, Balluff GmbH, CANCOM IT Solutions, Kings College London
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Arista, Dell Technologies and others in Data Center Networking. Updated: August 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.