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Cisco Nexus 9000 Series vs Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 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 Nexus 9000 Series
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
23rd
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (9th)
Juniper EX Series Ethernet ...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Fakhar Mahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
Has consistently supported high availability with reliable performance and minimal disruption
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series and the routers are good, but the FMC or FTDs still need some improvement. We have Palo Alto firewalls and Next-Generation Firewalls in our environment. In comparison to the main firewall, we moved from Cisco FTDs to Palo Alto. We still have FTDs in our environment, but the majority of the firewalls have been moved to Palo Alto. They are more user-friendly, give more visibility, and are more efficient. The performance is better than Cisco. With the new features, Cisco is having some improvement for the FTD. I am currently evaluating the FTDs. The new version has better features like the encrypted visibility engine and user-based changes in FMCs, and other things are quite useful for us. FTDs do have limitations and other issues. We communicated that limitation and feature support to the Cisco account manager. We do have support for the devices. We currently have a weekly call with Cisco and they are making progress regarding new versions of the FMCs and introducing new features. The performance of deployment has improved quite a bit compared to four or five years ago.
Patrick Anaku - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Roke Telkom
Has provided reliable performance with useful features such as virtual chassis and high port density
The important thing for our use case of Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches has been reliability, and there are features such as the Virtual Chassis feature, which is one of the things we use. In our case, we use them as core switches in a network that is not very large, and their reliability and the Virtual Chassis feature work well for us. It was one of the reasons we chose it, along with the port density; we are using the 32 port and the 48 port, which work for our needs. Regarding its security features such as MACsec encryption, they are standard and cover what we want; we do not do a lot as they are just Layer 2 switches, but it has standard security features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very durable and very reliable, and there has never been any issue with it."
"RealPresence works effectively."
"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is quite a complex machine, but we are using a very simple configuration with basic Nexus switching, and we don't have many issues with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series at the moment in our present infrastructure."
"Performance has been great with no abnormal behaviors detected, and the network remains stable even in failover scenarios, supporting vast environments with high availability."
"The most valuable features of Juniper Ethernet Switches are the simple configuration and ruggedness."
"The security is good."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches' best features are the high packer sorting and throughput, good uplink port capacity, and virtual setup."
"In terms of performance, Juniper switches have a more user-friendly interface and more features than Cisco products."
"I like the simplicity of it."
"As far as technology and WAN assurance are concerned, I rate Juniper switch ten out of ten."
"I find Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches to be flexible and desirable."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches' most valuable feature is the Juniper-Mist cloud, which facilitates management of the switches and access points."
 

Cons

"We find that Cisco has been left behind by the other vendors. The other vendors have adopted new technology, and we find Cisco lagging behind."
"Cost-wise, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very expensive."
"The SFP modules we are using have had issues. We have Cisco modules, but they frequently heat up or there are packet error issues."
"We need to start seeing some kind of AI to assist with some of what we really want to accomplish from a policy standpoint to achieve better efficiency."
"The only issue that we have with Juniper Ethernet Switches is the firmware because it is not stable."
"The operating system, Junos OS, often has bugs which forces rollbacks or additional upgrades to resolve."
"All Juniper documentation is terrible."
"Juniper's support could be much better and faster."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches' operating systems get corrupted when the power fails. They have to improve this issue. I may have to use a newer version."
"The management tools are limited in their abilities, and suffer from upgrade problems."
"The stability could be better. We find, for example, Cisco, to be more stable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The pricing for the support is very high."
"Juniper Ethernet Switches are a less expensive solution than Cisco Ethernet Switches. There is only a one-time purchase for Juniper Ethernet Switches."
"We only pay for support."
"Support prices and licensing scheme need to be improved to allow some features to be purchased at lower costs, for example, RPM​."
"Relatively affordable per switch."
"I think the tool's prices are competitive with the vendors."
"It's was $100,000 per year."
"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."
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Comparison Review

it_user82779 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Jan 29, 2014
Benefits of Juniper vs Cisco
Both are decent products. I prefer Juniper for the following reasons: 1) Cleaner separation of data plane from control plane. Higher end Cisco devices are better at this but most of the lower end products still seem to be more integrated than I like. 2) The Hierarchical config design means I can…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
8%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business39
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
After the initial integration, the focus has been on support rather than further development. Cost-wise, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very expensive. The pricing could absolutely be improved. So far,...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series serves as a core router and core switch for users, and provides interconnectivity between the core switch and the access switch, as well as remote access switch for smaller ...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
I am a customer of this solution and also a distributor. Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is usually integrated with other Cisco tools or third-party tools, including 3750, 3850, 3650, and 3750 as access sw...
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 advice do you have for others considering Juniper Ethernet Switches?
Juniper EX model is ok for the campus network as the ex4300 is EOL in a few years and the new ex4400 is the standard. Now for the QFX model, 5k/10k in CRB mode IP fabric Ethernet switching is horri...
What is your primary use case for Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches?
The important thing for our use case of Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches has been reliability, and there are features such as the Virtual Chassis feature, which is one of the things we use. In o...
 

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 Nexus 9000 Series vs. Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
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