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Cisco Nexus vs Juniper QFabric comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 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
Ranking in LAN Switching
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (5th)
Juniper QFabric
Ranking in LAN Switching
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 8.5%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper QFabric is 2.4%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

DeepakYadav1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good processing power to users
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a four to five out of ten. I rate the stability of the product as four to five out of ten based on the fact that I have checked the tool's features. I also know that there are many more options available in the market, like Palo Alto, Check Point, Fortinet, and other devices, which offer affordable, configurable, and scalable devices that I should plan to buy. Cisco is not providing tools for everything my company needs, but it is a good product. The market competition is high nowadays. Cisco is still handling some old parts. Cisco's old products make up approximately 67 percent of the devices offered in the networking industry. Despite the competition from products like Palo Alto, Check Point, and Fortinet, Cisco is not very scalable, but all its devices are updated regularly.
Suresh Pathipatti - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs well, is easy to set up, and the vendor maintains the product well
QFabric is the core switch. We also have two Brocade switches for the Fibre level The product works fine. It is an excellent product. There are different element systems and different options for each generation of the tool. We maintain the data center and analyze issues. I have no negative…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The biggest benefit to this solution is a high port density with high bandwidth."
"The solution is stable."
"Cisco technical support is a good backup team when you have issues with anything. If you open a case they are very good at following up and making sure that the issue's resolved according to the needs of our network."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is network visibility. It becomes the core switch. All of the devices connected route towards it."
"This is a powerful device and I can get good bandwidth."
"Technical support has been very, very helpful and they offer good SLAs."
"Current flexibility and the opportunities for future planning and scaling make this product line an ultimate opportunity."
"The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability."
"Juniper QFabric has various advantages including scalability, simplicity, performance, and flexibility."
"QFabric supports redundancy and includes all of the enterprise and service provider features that customers would want in data center or service provider network."
"The vendor maintains the product well."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the fabric backplane having upwards of 160 GB of communication. It is a top-of-the-rack solution where you have your directors sitting in the main area and then you have your nodes expanded out to your multiple cabinets. It has a very good design and could be your server backbone."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution is easy to use and has good performance."
"It is known for being agile, flexible, and cost-effective when working with various vendors."
 

Cons

"In the Nexus 3500, you can't do per-port Jumbo frames, so you have to enable it as a global configuration."
"I would like to see more automation and for it to be easier to use."
"Don't discard Cisco Nexus because of the price."
"The cost of the support can be improved. We had critical operations, and we needed 24/7 support for 365 days, which was quite expensive. We had to go for a very costly support contract, which was really a concern. The availability of spare parts, especially in a remote location such as Egypt, can also be improved."
"I would like to see better collaboration with other, low-end devices."
"In terms of improvement, the stacking between the two switches in the higher availability model should be similar to Catalyst. It's better to have one interface for configuration."
"One of the biggest challenges, which I see is that there's a constant evolution in the product. For example, our configuration is based on what is known as traditional data center implementation. Today there is the ACI deployment and to implement, to migrate from one technology to another, that's challenging both from a configuration perspective and also from a cost perspective."
"One of our switches died last week and we were able to RMA it. Within four hours it arrived on time and worked."
"The disruptive upgrade was an issue for us."
"Improvements could be made to QFabric's life cycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support."
"They are working on the virtualization of the actual fabric layer. They are moving away from the original spine-leaf design to a different infrastructure. Instead of having three tiers, which was the director of the interconnected nodes, they cut them back, and they still have that kind of structure."
"Having support for all OpenFlow versions would be beneficial."
"I do not use GUI's very much for switch stacks. I am always in the CLI. However, I do know that Juniper in the past has lacked on their GUI's, but they have been working on it."
"The pricing structure could be more budget-friendly."
"It would be nice if Juniper provided the system integrator with training, similar to that of Cisco."
"It works too much on rebooting and there is some memory leakage."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The Nexus 9000 is very competitively priced."
"This solution should be made more affordable."
"This is a very expensive product."
"The license on a yearly basis is $200,000."
"All of our costs including subscription, licensing, and support services are bundled together, and the cost is approximately $100,000 USD per year."
"I don't like the Smart Licensing models that Cisco uses."
"The problem with Cisco, from what I see, is that their costs are much higher."
"The solution is relatively expensive when compared with Cisco Catalyst."
"The price is relatively high, but it offers an advantage over its competitors by providing better performance and functionality."
"The price for Juniper QFabric could improve. There are subscription, maintenance, and add-on feature fees."
"The pricing is high and it is possible to find better pricing option solutions on the market, but the licensing model is quite flexible."
"The pricing is high."
"Juniper QFabric is a high-level solution but it could be less expensive."
"In terms of price, the QFabric solution is going to be probably in the middle of the road for a fabric solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Nexus?
The product's initial setup phase is very easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution. The solution is on-premises and stable. We haven't tried integration with the network software.
What do you like most about Juniper QFabric?
The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper QFabric?
Juniper QFabric is not overly expensive. Licensing is required for certain features like vRRP, but setting up a virtual chassis does not necessitate a separate license.
What needs improvement with Juniper QFabric?
Improvements could be made to QFabric's lifecycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support. The rapid release cycle and short life span compared to comp...
 

Also Known As

No data available
QFabric
 

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
MCB Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus vs. Juniper QFabric and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
864,155 professionals have used our research since 2012.