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

Cisco Cloud Services Router vs MikroTik Cloud Router Switch 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
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MikroTik Cloud Router Switch
Ranking in Routers
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Routers category, the mindshare of Cisco Cloud Services Router is 4.8%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is 8.0%, up from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Routers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MikroTik Cloud Router Switch8.0%
Cisco Cloud Services Router4.8%
Other87.2%
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.
Andriejus Artamonovas - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Has supported deeper configuration through traffic mirroring and advanced VLAN setup
The main reason why MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is usually chosen is its raw performance to price ratio. In comparison to UniFi switches, MikroTik Cloud Router Switch can mirror all ports for traffic inspection for further traffic analysis, which UniFi cannot do. VLANs in MikroTik Cloud Router Switch are always useful. The way MikroTik implements VLAN-aware switching at the bridge level is hidden in the configuration. Making CRS work as a simple VLAN-aware switch requires deeper configuration, which is not intuitive. VLANs support individual interfaces not part of the bridge, allowing for double VLANing. You can create a VLAN interface in the interfaces context and also create a bridge interface, add physical ports, create VLANs for that bridge interface, and assign tagged and untagged ports and VLANs. Load balancing is one of the key components. The feature itself is quite efficient and works reliably on MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. The very basic setup is one of my favorites because they have their protocol where I can connect through the MAC address right on Layer 2, and I don't lose connectivity to the switch if I mess up with bridging or IP addressing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"As an end user, I would recommend Cisco because it is stable, has good performance, resiliency, high availability, quick setup, a friendly environment, and friendly interfaces that are easy to deploy and manage."
"We have been very happy with its capabilities over the many years we have used the product."
"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 product is fantastic."
"It integrates well with the other products we're using. We have it with multiple windows like Palo Alto, Arista and it easily integrated with them."
"The bandwidth and throughput are pretty good."
"It connects all the accounts with the weaknesses, and this is what we were looking for, and it also connects with the on-premise side."
"It is easy to set up."
"The technical support for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is superb."
"The simplicity of how one can set it up is the most valuable aspect."
"The interface management and the user access management is pretty good."
"It is user-friendly, reliable, and cheap."
"The beauty of MikroTik is that you have flexibility with the routing parts."
"The traffic monitoring capabilities are excellent."
"This solution is very similar to the on-premises version making it easy to use for those who know the architect."
 

Cons

"Cisco Cloud Services Router could improve the GUI."
"You can use this router in a scalable solution but it has its limitations."
"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."
"I would like the ability to moderate between devices on-premise to off-premise. This would be a vast improvement."
"They have an online registration that happens after they pick up block months. If they could decrease to yearly or something, sometimes the device is not cell phone accessible. That becomes an issue or challenge for us. If that can be improved, that would be really great."
"Cost is a big factor. We would like to see the price reduced."
"This solution is kind of expensive."
"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."
"It can be difficult to identify key functions for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. I experience functionality limitations, particularly when trying to find specific features."
"While some customers use MikroTik Cloud Router Switch as a firewall, it's not at an industry-level, though the basic features are adequate for many users who prefer it over purchasing other reputed firewall solutions."
"The area for improvement is security. MikroTik is mostly used by medium and small businesses, so the security is not as robust as Cisco."
"The user interface could improve and they should allow a license for IBS."
"The RAM capacity offered by the product needs to be increased, as it is one area where the tool currently has some shortcomings."
"Most of the time, the MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is stable. If I were to rate the stability on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is the best, I would give it a 5."
"If MikroTik had a marketing team and support team in India then it would be much easier for us to get the product, as well as support."
"It would be even better with a centralized management platform."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is a little high, more than what we wanted to pay. This is one area where we would like to understanding how the price could be brought down a bit more."
"The product is too expensive on the AWS Marketplace."
"Purchasing the product on the AWS Marketplace was very simplistic. Our organization was trying to centralize our billing costs, and simplicity was best."
"The licensing model is good with this appliance: Bring Your Own License (BYOL)."
"Cost is a big factor. We would like to see the price reduced."
"Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace was easy. It was almost a one-click process to purchase CSR."
"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 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."
"The price of the solution is fair and there is a one-time license purchase only."
"I consider it to be a cost-effective solution."
"The licensing for MikroTik is great. It's easy to enter, especially for small businesses. Their model is great."
"They came with the licensing when we purchased them."
"This product has a one-time cost and there is no licensing fee."
"MikroTik is really cheap compared to the competitors."
"The price is competitive."
"In Pakistan, if you buy this cloud router, it's approximately $700 for the device."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Routers solutions are best for your needs.
909,099 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Performing Arts
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with MikroTik Cloud Router Switch?
It can be difficult to identify key functions for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. I experience functionality limitations, particularly when trying to find specific features. It would be beneficial to...
What is your primary use case for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch?
I mostly work with network equipment now, focusing mainly on routers. I work with FortiGates and MikroTik routers. When referring to FortiGate routers, I mean the firewalls, but not the enterprise-...
 

Also Known As

Cisco CSR, Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000v, Cisco CSR 1000v
MikroTik CRS Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Under Armour, HealthSparq, Adobe
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Cloud Services Router vs. MikroTik Cloud Router Switch and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,099 professionals have used our research since 2012.