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Cisco Enterprise Routers vs ExtremeRouting 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 Enterprise Routers
Ranking in Routers
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
112
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ExtremeRouting
Ranking in Routers
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Routers category, the mindshare of Cisco Enterprise Routers is 15.6%, down from 19.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeRouting is 4.1%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Routers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Enterprise Routers15.6%
ExtremeRouting4.1%
Other80.3%
Routers
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2759889 - PeerSpot reviewer
Pre-Sales Technical Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has supported robust enterprise deployments and management while pricing and market reach for advanced features need attention
I'm not sure what improvements could be made on the configuration scale since I'm not involved in complete configuration. Currently, it works effectively and they are incorporating AI adoption. Commercially and financially, the pricing is too high. Customers feel that Cisco Enterprise Routers will not offer the most competitive prices. If they can work on pricing, it would be easier for customers who are considering local products. In India, the government has implemented the Make in India initiative, and Cisco has established a manufacturing unit there. Regarding security products, they need to improve market reach, marketing, and training. While Cisco Enterprise Routers are user-friendly for network and wireless platforms, security product configuration and integration are considered complex compared to FortiGate, Check Point, Sophos, and Palo Alto. They have introduced solutions such as Cloud Defense Orchestrator and Firewall Manager (FMC), but the reach of Cisco security products in India needs improvement.
Imran Taiyeb Ali - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Solutions Specialist at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
A scalable tool that needs to improve its support, software resiliency, and software stability
The support team is not technically that strong. The previous company that owned the product, Nortel, went bankrupt, after which the transition phase of the product didn't go smoothly. Avaya did not do well with the product's design and engineering after taking the product over from Nortel, after which Avaya decided to outsource the tool to my company, meaning we have worked as a vendor with third-party access to the tool in the name of Avaya. The support was very bad initially, but my company could fix the problems of the customers on time since we had better communication skills than technical-solving skills due to our limitations related to the area of device engineering. When it comes to a feature of the product, my company could enable it for the customers or users of the product. If, by any chance, my company found a bug in the tool, then it was a hectic task for our support team to deal with it since it took months to fix it. Currently, Extreme Networks takes care of the support part, and it might have improved. I rate the technical support a four out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is issue-free."
"The Cisco name guarantees that it is a good product and it meets most of the demands."
"The performance of the devices is very reliable."
"The solution is scalable."
"It is a good router that is available with advanced technology."
"The routing platform is good."
"High performance for secure broadband and Metro Ethernet access, Fast Ethernet and ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI), secure 802.11a/g/n access point with dual-band radios for mobility that supports Cisco Unified WLAN architectures, firewall, site-to-site remote-access and dynamic VPN services including IPsec VPNs, Group Encrypted Transport VPN with onboard acceleration and SSL VPN, intrusion prevention system, an 8-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet managed switch with VLAN support and 4-port Power over Ethernet, plus one 1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet and one 10/100 BASE-T Fast Ethernet WAN port with Cisco software that helps in configuration."
"The performance is good."
"It is a very scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Looking at the robustness, I do not know whether it would be carrier grade – let's say for hundreds of thousands of users – but it certainly doesn't balk at 10,000 users or less."
"We evaluated Cisco routers as well, but we chose ExtremeRouting because it was more user-friendly, budget-friendly, cheap compared to Cisco, and has an easy configuration process."
"What I like about Extreme Routing is its impressive performance."
"Provides a good redundancy technique."
"The routing protocol is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"It is very easy to set up."
"Overall, ExtremeRouting requires less technical depth in order to implement the infrastructure than Cisco, for example."
 

Cons

"I think that it would be better if they can create menus and instructions in the Ukrainian language."
"Tends to have a short life cycle."
"I have found the price to be expensive for the solution. Other products are coming to the market that are not as expensive, Cisco should reduce their price to be more comparable."
"The solution could be more secure."
"Cisco routers are very pricey. This is the biggest complaint from customers for which we provide support."
"Their software-defined paradigm requires significant improvement."
"An area of improvement would be the way the licenses are managed because, at the moment, you pay for a license for each router as opposed to paying a once-off cost."
"Pricing structure when it comes to Borderless Networks and PIX firewall routers."
"Some of the latest protocols are unavailable."
"The support, software resiliency, and software stability are areas of concern where improvements are required."
"One area for improvement with Extreme Routing is the need for more accessible and comprehensive training."
"My advice for those looking into ExtremeRouting is: right now all switch manufacturers are backed up for months. If you're looking to implement quickly, I would say shop around a bit because it might be difficult."
"The solution is far too unstable. It's completely unreliable."
"It's not evolving as quickly as we would like it to."
"We have not had a very good experience with customer service and support."
"We are concerned with how the solution will evolve to the next generation of Contact Center. It's not evolving as quickly as we would like it to."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"Cisco is more expensive than other architecture solutions."
"Our issues are basically currency related. The licensing is in dollars and the dollar is steadily rising. We've had an increase in the licensing fee due to the simple reason that the exchange rate is almost over 40%. That creates a major issue. If the currency devaluation doesn't stabilize, we may have to look at another solution."
"I like the price of the solution."
"The pricing of Cisco routers is reasonable at times. But, here in my country, it is expensive because we get the product from outside our country, which involves a lot of processes...Only owing to the features it provides, it is reasonable."
"The cost of this solution is very low compared to other products."
"The cost of this solution is a little bit high compared to others."
"For a boost performance license, the cost is $2,000 to $2,500. There is an additional cost for more scalability."
"We have no issues with the price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business47
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise44
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How do Cisco Enterprise routers compare with Mikrotik routers and switches?
Cisco Enterprise Routers are very stable and easy to use. They offer a very solid performance and are very secure. They also have a very good, long lifespan. We feel the command configuration is ve...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Enterprise Routers?
It is expensive, but I am not the person purchasing the products; I just handle the configuration.
What needs improvement with Cisco Enterprise Routers?
I think Cisco can make better improvements for routers in terms of the selling bit, when it comes to discounts. If you are a partner and you're not up there, your discount is not that good. So you'...
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Also Known As

No data available
Avaya Enterprise Routers
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, Boingo, Chartwell School, Children's Hospital of Orange County , Department of Justice, Explorer Pipeline, Linz AG, National Rugby League, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Telecom Italia, Transwestern
Breakthrough Urban Ministries, Black Oak Casino, Glamorgan County Cricket Club, University of San Carlos, Holland Hall School, South Euclid Lyndhurst Schools, Prairie View Networking Academy, City of Troy, Ryerson University, Linamar, City of Redondo Beach, York Region District School Board
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Enterprise Routers vs. ExtremeRouting and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.