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Cisco Nexus vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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
Ranking in Data Center Networking
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (2nd)
Cisco Nexus Dashboard
Ranking in Data Center Networking
11th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Infrastructure Management (11th)
 

Featured Reviews

Fakhar Mahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
Migration between data centers has strengthened core connectivity and simplified segmentation
The biggest problems during migration were corporate issues, including dependencies on other devices such as F5, HSMs, and firewalls from Palo Alto. Everything was connected over the core switches, which made this a quite difficult part to manage and to onboard the teams and to understand the impact of the migration. We encountered an issue where we have two data centers, and unknowingly we were configuring the devices with the same VPC number on both devices. By doing that, we were not able to terminate the lease lines over those core switches. According to Cisco, we had to change the VPC number of one of the data center's core switches since they are in a VPC. We are still waiting, and it has been more than five to six years just to change the VPC number and migrate back the lease line. Now we are having cabin switches for the lease line and then the core switch. That VPC number issue was quite surprising for us. However, we have a very frequent issue with Cisco Nexus, particularly with the SFPs. Every time a port or the SFP heats up, it gets faulty. We have almost sixteen Nexus switches per data center. In a year, we experience one or two port issues per annum. We have standard Equinix data centers with standard installations, but somehow the temperature is always maintained and there is no ducting, yet the ports and the SFPs heat up or become faulty. This is a very frequent issue with the SFP-based port.
Vijaya Mandadi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Wells Fargo
Monitoring has improved and now quickly identifies misaligned configurations and link issues
I have been using Cisco Nexus Dashboard for three to four years initially, and then got switched to Arista, and now it is coming back again as we just deployed the servers for those who are in the process of setting it up.I do not think Cisco optimizes the experience of a hybrid or distributed enterprise setup because we have Arista in our network too.I do not know how end-to-end visibility from Cisco affects my organization's troubleshooting capabilities.The first time when we got Cisco deployed, for some reason, it was not as scalable as how we wanted because the leaves stopped growing after approximately 150 or something. We needed to be scaled much larger, and that is when we pivoted from Cisco to Arista. However, I think it is coming back as they eliminated that problem.I would rate this review at a nine 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

"The most valuable feature of Cisco Nexus is modularity; it's like the Swiss Army knife of switches, and if you pay for all the features, you can do almost anything you want to do with it."
"The seamless integration of Nexus in the data center provides a scalable and stable solution."
"On a scale from one to 10, I would rate this product an eight just because I don't have to touch it."
"This solution is easy to set up and we haven't had very many problems with it."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the power."
"The solution is very expensive. Currently, we pay an yearly licensing cost. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."
"A very solid and reliable solution."
"From a data center implementation, with respect to competition from your data, there isn't really a product recovery for the different tests other than Cisco Nexus. For example, if you take Multi-tenancy for the data center, it's something which, I think, only Cisco has. There are some implementation from HP, but I think it's limited there."
"The feature I appreciate most about Cisco Nexus Dashboard is the ability to control everything in one centralized place."
"What I like the most about Cisco Nexus Dashboard is the easier way to know exactly which device is connected to where."
 

Cons

"The solution could be improved in general in all aspects."
"I would love to see Active/Active FEX connectivity, which is enhanced vPC, where we could also do a vPC from a server in that type of configuration."
"The additional features I would like to see included in the next release is the ability to integrate routing and switching features."
"Cisco Nexus still needs more stability."
"The implementation process could be easier, which is something that should be improved."
"Cisco Nexus is just a platform. You just set it up, give it an IP, and then start configuring it. But there are a million features to configure."
"I would like to see some development into the SAE world where you can virtualize. That would be the only thing I would like to see because I need to start virtualizing my infrastructure gear at some of the other data centers that I have."
"I would like to see the integration of the products into something where it's seamless where an engineer never touches the switch again, never does CLI and you move to an application based network organization."
"My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cisco Nexus Dashboard is that it is expensive."
"The first time when we got Cisco deployed, for some reason, it was not as scalable as how we wanted because the leaves stopped growing after approximately 150 or something."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"We have a three-year subscription for our licensing fees."
"We only have a yearly support contract, as we do not use any of the subscription-based functions at this time."
"It's around $160K a year for our license."
"Our licensing costs for this solution are approximately $200 USD per month."
"Cisco's licensing structures can be complex across different technologies, for example, unified communications."
"We have three hundred to four hundred data centers of Nexus. So the coverage associated with Smart Net is 27 by 4, is basically what we spend each year. If the incentives get better, which I know they're working on, it would be great but right now we're buying year to year."
"If you compare Cisco hardware to any other vendors, such as HPE, they are more expensive. There is a license to use the solution. If my customer's licenses are about to expire I receive notification from Cisco, this is very helpful."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise83
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
We are a reseller, and we sell products to our customers.
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
The biggest problems during migration were corporate issues, including dependencies on other devices such as F5, HSMs, and firewalls from Palo Alto. Everything was connected over the core switches,...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus?
Cisco Nexus is used in data centers with a simple Nexus OS deployment model. In our environment, we do not use programmability with Cisco Nexus. The switches are used very basically in our infrastr...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus Dashboard?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cisco Nexus Dashboard is that it is expensive. They are not going to lower the price. If you want it, you are going to have to pay for it. ...
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus Dashboard?
Cisco Nexus Dashboard is pretty solid, so I do not know what can be improved or what additional features should be included.
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus Dashboard?
Cisco Nexus Dashboard serves as a dashboard to ensure that all Nexus devices are properly set up.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus vs. Cisco Nexus Dashboard and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,099 professionals have used our research since 2012.