No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Juniper Contrail Networking comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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 Catalyst SD-WAN
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (4th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (2nd)
Juniper Contrail Networking
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Networking (SDN) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is designed for Network Management Applications and holds a mindshare of 2.3%, down 2.6% compared to last year.
Juniper Contrail Networking, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined Networking (SDN), holds 7.5% mindshare, up 6.4% since last year.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN2.3%
Cisco DNA Center7.6%
DataMiner5.4%
Other84.7%
Network Management Applications
Software Defined Networking (SDN) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Juniper Contrail Networking7.5%
Meraki SD-WAN9.8%
Cisco ACI9.1%
Other73.6%
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
 

Featured Reviews

Ashwani-Tyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional Manager at Orange
Centralized control has simplified cloud access and has improved operational visibility
If they can have better firewall features as their competitors have, such as Fortinet and Versa, that would help to place this solution better so that we can address security related things. If they can have all the IPS, IDS, everything built on all the edge devices, whether physical or virtual, that could be one improvement. Actually, if customers are existing Cisco customers, if Cisco can be more flexible to leverage the existing investment, that could be another important aspect to save on cost and be more competitive from a pricing perspective. Overall, the pricing or the segment that Cisco deals with is a bit premium, which they charge a bit premium against the competition on the licensing, hardware, and services. The implementation is not straightforward. You need a specialized partner or specialized people who can implement this. It can be simplified a bit from that perspective as well. Mostly the way we implement the policies for a big environment requires a lot of things that we need to take care of. If that can somehow be improved, because they have different components, like they have vManage, they have vSmart, and vBond and all these components have to work with a certain flow that they need to follow.
TA
Solution Architect at ConnX Inc.
Smart configuration management eliminates the need to worry about managing the network's configurations
Based on my experience in the Indian market, there are four to five areas that need improvement. First, there is a lack of marketing and awareness about Juniper, making it difficult to reach end-users and deliver solutions. Second, Juniper's education and awareness centers are costly and not easily accessible like Cisco's resources and their understanding of users' requirements. The information is not easily available on online channels like Youtube. Third, Juniper needs to promote its Mist integration better, and pricing is also a significant factor. Finally, Juniper needs to address the market's specific requirements, such as the SME sector, and offer more lower-priced products like a lower-end segment switch. In summary, improving marketing and sales, education and awareness, Mist integration, pricing, and catering to specific market requirements are areas that need improvement. I just want a good feature in the SD-WAN. Juniper should consider integrating its firewall experience with its SD-WAN devices to create a complete package. With everything moving to the cloud, companies require intelligence and security solutions for their on-prem infrastructure. Moreover, Juniper should integrate its SOC solution into its Mist portal and SD-WAN devices, including IPs, IDS, web and content filters, and messaging. This would provide a complete product and give Juniper an advantage over competitors such as Cisco. I believe that with a bundle that includes SOC and UTM flavors in their Mist portal, Juniper can make a significant impact in the market.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best feature of this technology that is available to us is the ability to do better load-balancing."
"Encryption, which is native to the solution, is a valuable feature. Also, central management, onboarding of devices, QS, and routing applications are all okay."
"The most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN are reliability and scalability."
"Overall, our experience has been very positive."
"There have been no issues with stability."
"80 percent reduction in WAN costs."
"The most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN include the DIA and its integration with Cisco Umbrella for DNS security."
"The scalability is the most valuable feature."
"After we finished setting Contrail up, it seemed stable enough. Still, we never tested it in a real environment, so we don't have enough information to say whether it's stable with a given number of users and appliances. We have tested it in a lab environment, but we haven't tested enough to say that the platform is stable."
"Juniper Contrail Networking is low-cost for small and medium-sized businesses, and Cisco and Palo Alto solutions are more expensive."
"Contrail automates the excellent communication between virtual appliances."
"It provides proactive alerting in a single dashboard solution."
"After we finished setting Contrail up, it seemed stable enough."
"Juniper Contrail Networking is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"The solution is difficult to set up. It's tedious."
"The solution is expensive and could be cheaper."
"It would be very helpful if we had better access to a knowledge base, or online documentation, to help both us and our customers learn to use this solution."
"The solution could have a better web interface to simplify changing configurations."
"Cisco products are a little bit complicated, so making them a little bit easier would be an improvement."
"The whole solution needs to be re-imagined. It's quite complex right now and really needs to be simplified to make it easier for those of us using it. It should offer more simplified management as well."
"The main area for improvement in Cisco SD-WAN is the lack of documentation, which often lags behind the software releases."
"The bandwidth limitations would be good to remove, but it is a policy and license situation for Cisco because the cost is very high. It would be good to have OTP implemented with VRF. It can have support for EIGRP Over the Top (OTP) VRF. I saw some limitations in regards to the VRF protocol and the advertisement between VRF configuration. EIGRP Over the Top basically was quite limited with the VRF configuration. If you wanted to do rollback in VRF by using the EIGRP OTP protocol, the formation was not populated across. Cisco got back and confirmed that it is a configuration that I need to wait for until the next release, which is going to happen in one year. Cisco documentation is not the way it used to be before. It just gives an easy way to configure, but it doesn't go into the details of the configuration. The information that you need is there, but sometimes you want to go further and get more information, but the information is quite limited. It would be good to cover a few business cases or configuration cases. They used to be there in the past."
"Juniper needs to address the market's specific requirements, such as the SME sector, and offer more lower-priced products like a lower-end segment switch."
"Concerns were raised about the complexity of involving networking components like MX routers, which often required expertise beyond the scope of software engineers. As a result, users encountered challenges in achieving comprehensive understanding and troubleshooting of networking issues within the Contrail environment."
"Juniper Contrail Networking is difficult if you do not have a certificate for Juniper. Juniper is a different type of configuration or operation than Cisco."
"Visibility, especially for the top of the platform, is a nightmare. The top was documented incorrectly and really complex to complete. In the end, it worked but only after several weeks of work with the support of a Juniper solution engineer in Holland."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco is more expensive than some competing products."
"The pricing of this solution is very expensive."
"There is a monthly subscription to use this solution."
"It is going to be on a yearly basis. There are no additional costs."
"I give the price a seven out of ten."
"The pricing is fair, and it's on par with the market vendors. But based on the competition, Cisco could work on the pricing, go deep on discounts and provide more commercially viable solutions to customers."
"It is much cheaper than other solutions. Most of our clients are the top 500 companies, and they all have a corporate contract."
"Cost-wise, Cisco SD-WAN is comparatively high."
"Juniper Contrail Networking is low-cost for small and medium-sized businesses. Cisco and Palo Alto solutions are more expensive."
"There are many vendors in the wireless market that offer better pricing, solutions, and management skills compared to Juniper."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Management Applications solutions are best for your needs.
914,351 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Retailer
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business49
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise49
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco SD-WAN?
Cisco offers premium enterprise capabilities, but its pricing, setup cost, and licensing models represent the most significant hurdles for IT organizations. Cisco hardware commands a premium price ...
What needs improvement with Cisco SD-WAN?
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN can be improved in minimal ways, because they have updated it now, and the updated version is really good. The only concern is the cost; compared to others, the cost is higher...
What is your primary use case for Cisco SD-WAN?
We are a system integrator and a Cisco Select Partner, deploying all the Cisco portfolios like SD-WAN, switching, firewall, access point, and then Secure Access, our cybersecurity product. We have ...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Cisco SD-WAN
Contrail Networking
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
Lithium Technologies, Orange Business Services, Cloudwatt, Symantec, Cloud Dynamics, CloudSeeds
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Skyline Communications and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: September 2026.
914,351 professionals have used our research since 2012.