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Cisco Cloud Services Router vs Juniper Session Smart Router comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 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 Cloud Services Router
Ranking in Routers
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Juniper Session Smart Router
Ranking in Routers
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Routers category, the mindshare of Cisco Cloud Services Router is 4.1%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper Session Smart Router is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Routers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Juniper Session Smart Router1.5%
Cisco Cloud Services Router4.1%
Other94.4%
Routers
 

Featured Reviews

VENKATESHREDDY - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate IT Director at Diligent Global
Manageable, provides excellent support, and easily integrates with other products
One central area for improvement in Cisco is its product line offering. Cisco has ISE and other products, such as DNS Center and other components. Instead of small to medium-sized customers purchasing devices and maintaining the devices, it would be great if customers could have subscriptions. A CAPEX/OPEX model instead of that Cisco code, where the pricing model is subscription-based, would give much better flexibility for the customers. The pricing and model for Cisco Cloud Services Router and other Cisco products could be improved. One good example of what I want to be added to the Cisco Cloud Services Router in its next version is for it to be more of a plug-and-play product. For example, Juniper has developed QR codes, so if you need to plug in a device, you scan from your phone and connect to the internet. That's it. You can provision the device remotely through the cloud orchestrator, so I want to see a similar function or feature in Cisco Cloud Services Router.
SRI GANESH  PHANIYAPPA - PeerSpot reviewer
Sub Divisional Engineer NOC Bangalore at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
Delivered tailored features and meets requirements effectively
We are using it as a DNG. This means all subscriber PPPoE sessions or ILS Smart VPN connections are terminated through the access network to this BNG, Uniphore BNG. From there, they are managed Everything has been fine. Although we did not explore much about the solution, they provided us with a…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution is scalable."
"It handles stress very well. We have not reached a point of needing to worry about its capabilities."
"The most valuable feature is the artificial intelligence assessment models."
"It allowed us to create a more secure VPN than we would have been able to do without it."
"The most valuable features of the Cisco Cloud Services Router are the integration with Amazon and Oracle cloud."
"It provides peace of mind because it is a stable product that you aren't going to lose sleep over at night wondering if it will be running or not."
"It seems pretty stable. We have never had any issues with it."
"It is definitely scalable. It can handle a lot more traffic and group work compared to any other products that I've evaluated. It could easily scale a lot more than what I'm doing right now."
"The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based."
"They provided us with a customized product according to our requirements."
"As compared to the other major vendors in the SD-WAN market, such as VeloCloud, Cisco, and others, the tunnel-free and secure vector routing technology is its major USP, which gives plenty of room to discuss with the customer why IPSec from 1998 is a bit outdated."
"Customer service is very prompt."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."
 

Cons

"I would like some deployment examples and guides specific to AWS VPCs and how to separate your subnets. Then, how they tie-in with the Internet gateway and any NAT services that we are running on our VPC. This would be extremely helpful."
"The ease of use within the AWS environment needs to improve. Sometimes, it is very esoteric in how you use it. Therefore, you have to learn to use it, then you are able to."
"Cisco Cloud Services Router could improve the GUI."
"It is too complex. It is not easy to set up, even with the documentation that they provided. It is a little confusing."
"It could grow or adapt to changes in the cloud. For example, cloud does not support autoscaling. When people want to grow, they have to do manual activities."
"Cisco Cloud Services Router could improve by having more features. It is lacking features, such as virtualization and containerization. Additionally, there should be increased security and connectivity between routers."
"A CAPEX/OPEX model, where the pricing model is subscription-based, would give much better flexibility for the customers. The pricing and model for Cisco Cloud Services Router and other Cisco products could be improved."
"You can use this router in a scalable solution but it has its limitations."
"Juniper Session Smart Router can improve the integration for Wi-Fi devices and add additional Sassy deployments."
"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks. What we are missing there are wizards. For example, I have two applications, and I want one application to be prioritized against the other. In such a case, a wizard for assigning policies to a service without configuring each step by hand would be very helpful. There should be an overhaul of the GUI of the conductor. The functionality they have got in the Mist portal should be baked into the conductor itself. It would be really great, but as we all know, that won't happen."
"Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost needs improvement. It is very expensive through the AWS Marketplace."
"We would prefer to go through the vendor instead of AWS, as we have a relationship with the vendor and can get discounts directly from them. Going through the vendor, it is much cheaper for us. Though, we would still keep it hosted on AWS."
"This solution is kind of expensive."
"Cisco Cloud Services Router is an expensive product. My company pays for the product yearly, and the price reaches roughly $800,000. Though Cisco Cloud Services Router is expensive and its competitors offer better pricing, when it comes to support, it's unbeatable."
"Purchasing it through the AWS Marketplace was very simple. We went through the AWS Marketplace because it was the easiest way to get the product up and running very quickly."
"We never buy the product on the AWS Marketplace. We only download it. We always use BYOL. We never buy the license in the AWS Marketplace, because it's very expensive."
"Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace was easy. It was almost a one-click process to purchase CSR."
"You do need to pay a licensing fee to use the solution. You can do a yearly or three-year subscription. The product itself is quite expensive. It would be ideal if they offered the product at a cheaper price."
"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."
"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?
I did not find any problem with Juniper. Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do.
What is your primary use case for Juniper Session Smart Router?
We are using it as a DNG. This means all subscriber PPPoE sessions or ILS Smart VPN connections are terminated through the access network to this BNG, Uniphore BNG. From there, they are managed.
 

Also Known As

Cisco CSR, Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000v, Cisco CSR 1000v
128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Under Armour, HealthSparq, Adobe
Revation Systems
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Cloud Services Router vs. Juniper Session Smart Router and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.