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Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches vs Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches comparison

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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 N9300 Series Smart Sw...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
26th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Juniper EX Series Ethernet ...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Thu Al-Faqar Salah - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at V2X
Modern data center fabric has delivered zero packet drops and simplified traffic control
Regarding improvements for Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches, I think the only issue that could prevent users from using these devices is the smart licensing, as the license model could be much simpler and more cost-effective. Managing Cisco licensing and tiered subscriptions involves unnecessary operational overhead for deployment and renewal. Also, if you are planning to use ACI mode, most of the concepts such as VRF, EPG, and tenant will change. When deploying in ACI mode, the architecture has a steep learning curve, as the policy-driven model requires expensive and specialized training, and many concepts will change for traditional network engineers, requiring them to adapt and learn. Additionally, most of the issues I faced are related to hardware cost specifically, so if we could get a model that is less costly and more cost-effective with simpler licensing, it would be much better. Regarding further improvements, I remember something about the upgrade process. When we did the upgrade for the N9300, changing the image took us around 12 to 15 minutes, which was really a long time. This happened for more than one switch, so I do not know if it is a bug or if this is something normal, but I think they need to address it.
SP
Security Consultant at Cisco
Network access control has integrated smoothly and delivers flexible guest onboarding
In my opinion, there is not much potential room for improvement for Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches. If there is anything, I will surely get in touch with you. I am also in touch with the local SEs over here who are part of Juniper. I haven't seen any small stability bugs, but the only thing is sometimes I feel that while creating an ACL filter IDs, in other vendors, I've seen it is quite easy but in Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches, I have to do a lot of testing before implementing it in production. Normal ACL that we write with filter ID normally reads "permit IP any host equals to" but in Juniper it is different. I have to write three or four lines for each rule.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When you buy a Cisco device, you are going to forget about it after plugging it in because the device is powerful."
"Cisco products are very strong and stable."
"The integration is very good, and there is very low CPU utilization, so multiple users can work without any problem."
"Performance-wise, Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches is a great machine to work with."
"The security is good."
"It's stable and reliable."
"The GUI interface distinguishes it from other vendors and makes it easy to operate."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches are high-end solutions."
"Juniper switches are very good with MPLS."
"The stability is very good."
"The Virtual Chassis, because you have a centralized administration of a set of switches which makes the operation more efficient.​"
"In general, I cannot find anything that is bad about this product."
 

Cons

"It is expensive. Compared to Aruba and Dell, it is a little bit costly."
"The price is something negative for Cisco that I see."
"Regarding improvements for Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches, I think the only issue that could prevent users from using these devices is the smart licensing, as the license model could be much simpler and more cost-effective."
"We are undergoing a migration to software-defined networking. Different vendors have to integrate with each other and we are not seeing this type of capability within Juniper. We are getting left behind in this technology trend by staying with this solution. Juniper is also losing a bit of market share because of this."
"The pricing for the Juniper product is expensive. It is rated high on the scale, and I would say it is definitely on the high side, confirming a rating of one, which means it is very expensive."
"More security could be provided, especially with the rising cyber-attacks in business organizations."
"I have found the scalability could be improved in the version I was using."
"It was very difficult to get technical support, here in Egypt. There is no local support available."
"The management platforms for the network need improvement."
"The Virtual Chassis Fabric is kind of complicated to troubleshoot sometimes. On the MPLS side, they're good — they're fine for the pseudo-wires and stuff—but they need more work on the LAN. It is difficult to troubleshoot their LAN technologies like Virtual Chassis."
"The initial setup for Juniper switches is complex. Juniper has a new program that solves that problem a little bit, but it is expensive, so I don't use it. It is Juniper Mesh, Juniper Wire, or something like that where you plug in a switch, and it goes out to their cloud, finds a config, and brings it down. So, you can do everything cloud-based, but there is a fee for that. It is expensive, so I've never used it. If we were starting, we would try to do something like that. It is more for a large enterprise for managing hundreds of switches versus what we're doing. They should make its price more cost-effective or include it for new or smaller companies."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Relatively affordable per switch."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches are cheaper than Cisco or HP."
"It is an inexpensive product."
"They offer a more competitive pricing structure compared to one of the competitors."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches could be less expensive. There is not a license needed to use the solution."
"The maintenance cost is approximately €2,000 ($2,200 USD) per year, including support, for our entire fleet."
"There is a subscription payment model or you can purchase licenses on a one, two, and five-year basis. If you want decent support, the solution is not expensive."
"The product's pricing is less and almost half of Cisco's."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business39
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches?
Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches is expensive. Compared with Aruba and Dell, it is a little bit costly.
What needs improvement with Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches?
As for any negative points, I think there is nothing significant. The only thing that Cisco may focus on commercially is the SmartNet. From my experience, I have worked with many MNCs where SmartNe...
What is your primary use case for Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches?
The major use case that we have with Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches is that our current switches are old and getting into end of life from Cisco. This is the reason we started looking for the ri...
In terms of ethernet switches, would you go with Cisco or Juniper?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Cisco or Juniper Ethernet switches were the better fit for us. We decided to go with Juniper. Juniper ethernet switches are a lesser-known...
What is your primary use case for Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches?
I have been working with Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches for more than a year.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper EX Series?
The pricing of Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches is a bit high, but it matches what it offers; in terms of capability and reliability, once I put it on the network, we are usually guaranteed a lo...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Juniper Ethernet Switches
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
BlackLotus, Staminus, Community Bank, BAS Group, Cloud Dynamics, Privalia, Fluidata, and Tesla Motors.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco N9300 Series Smart Switches vs. Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.