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Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] vs NETGEAR Switches comparison

 

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

Dell PowerConnect Switches ...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NETGEAR Switches
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (8th), Ethernet Switches (6th), AV Over IP Switching (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

LarsEvans - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer / Chief Information Security Officer at Lorton Data, Inc.
Reliable and useful for network segmentation
The solution's most valuable feature stands up well. The tool is reliable, and it stands up well. The solution works fine and lasts a long time. I think if you speak about the features that have a flow and you can measure, it is hard to say. I don't spend a lot of my time with the tool, but I know that Dell APEX is the solution's cloud. I would say the VLAN features are important. The VLAN features are really useful because network segmentation is important. I would say the tool is easy to program. I don't know if the tool has any security features that I am aware of other than the fact that the solution is for networking. The VLAN and the ability to segment your networks are easy, which is its security feature.
Tomas Devriese - PeerSpot reviewer
Teamleader Av Installers at solufak
VLAN support has improved audiovisual installations and secures network traffic for our projects
Our major use cases include audiovisual installations and we mainly use the AV line for that. We work with the VLAN support feature The best things about NETGEAR Switches are the support they provide and the ease of implementation. The ease of installation helps with network performance. It helps…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If you need some advanced features and reliable core networking components at an affordable price, these switches are for you."
"The functionality is very good."
"This is a stable product and I have not experienced any bugs."
"Dell PowerConnect Switches are very easy to configure with the GUI. Dell supports the solution even though it has been discontinued."
"It has excellent technical support, is very scalable, stable, reliable, and the product is very affordable."
"When the price is competitive the customers tend to choose the cheaper brand and then look at the features. So having a competitive price is a plus."
"We evaluated numerous options before choosing Dell including Fortinet, HP and Cisco, but really it was this solution that worked given our budget and for installation, it was a good solution in terms of technical support, scalability, availability and a lot of things, and it satisfied our requirements."
"Dell offers very good support."
"NETGEAR offers a competitive pricing structure, which is beneficial for cost management."
"Its setup, usage, and access are most valuable. It is a very easy switch to set up."
"Remote management is the most important thing for us. And monitoring, of course, allows us to see when something is wrong with a client. We get notified that an access point is down, for instance, or that there are too many clients on one access point, so that we can log into the portal and manage the solution with the client instantly, from either a laptop or a cell phone, with the Insight app."
"I'm satisfied with the stability of NETGEAR Switches."
"The price to performance of the switches is excellent."
"Valuable features include network monitoring and ease of programming for VLANs, etc. I especially like NETGEAR because it's easy to teach system administrators how to use them, how to look at them, how to make changes to them without having the complexity of CLIs, but still having a CLI should we need it."
"NETGEAR Switches have increased the throughput and speed of internal communication, and have improved our network efficiency."
"With NETGEAR hardware, we have lifetime support and lifetime trade, so I didn't see any reason not to change."
 

Cons

"The product price is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"What's lacking in Dell PowerConnect Switches is SD-WAN integration, and this is what needs to be improved in it. All enterprises now move towards SD-WAN infrastructure, and because Dell PowerConnect Switches don't currently support SD-WAN, the product would be replaced, considered a secondary switch, or linked up to a different switch. Integration or support for SD-WAN is what I'd like to see in the next version of Dell PowerConnect Switches."
"An area for improvement would be that it's very hard to configure if you're not familiar with the UI or CLI of the product. The UI itself could also be improved."
"The CLI for Dell PowerConnect Switches is sometimes confusing, especially with the LAN, but for the GUI it is simple."
"You have to build the stackable interface by yourself in Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL], making it an area that can be considered for improvement."
"The solution's ROI for generic networking is not extraordinary."
"The one issue you face in the industry there is always some planned obsolescence in these switches."
"I expect it to be a zero-touch or a plug-and-play device. To some extent, it is, but we need to know the architecture, and we need to know what exactly we are doing. It is not so easy to implement. It depends on what exactly we are doing and it is still not a plug-and-play or zero-touch device. In the upcoming version, they can make it zero-touch, where we can just power it on and start using it. They can have some templates for different scenarios, such as when you are using it for the data center or adding it to your existing infrastructure."
"One area that has room for improvement, and I know NETGEAR is working on it, is adding more features to the products lines in terms of what we can manage through the Insight portal... not all Layer 2 or Layer 3 settings are there yet."
"The management of them, itself, is not so good. You have to go between many different browsers, even some super-old browsers, to be able to do it. That is a super pain."
"The M4250 switches needs more SFP models."
"The technical support was not very helpful; they were helpful only to a point and it helps when they can figure out the problem for you."
"NETGEAR Switches could be more secure. Scalability could also be better."
"The product could be more robust."
"Being able to pass AVB traffic over these switches, that would be a huge add."
"NETGEAR should focus on eliminating single points of failure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In my opinion, it is a product that is priced somewhere in the middle, making it a well-priced solution in the middle. It is not a very cheap product."
"Pricing for Dell PowerConnect Switches is quite competitive compared to Cisco and HP pricing. Dell has cheaper pricing and the company is trying to push for sales for its switching infrastructure because right now, the current market is dominated by Cisco. In the US market, there's Cisco, HP, Juniper, and Arista which you can buy for data center switching meant for different kinds of enterprises and ISPs. Dell PowerConnect Switches, on the other hand, is a product for people who need smaller setups or individual switches, especially those looking for a cheaper product and basic switching, though you can also buy a complete suite packaged with the switches."
"Cheaper than its competitors"
"The product is cheaper than Cisco and licensing is yearly. We have to pay additional costs for support."
"This solution is much cheaper than comparable products by Cisco."
"PowerConnect Switches are priced well."
"If one is the cheapest price and ten is the most expensive, I rate the product price as an eight or nine. The tool is not cheap."
"I would rate the pricing as a seven or eight."
"It is not expensive."
"NETGEAR Switches' pricing is low compared to other brands. I rate it an eight out of ten."
"There are two parts to the pricing. There's the pricing of the device itself, which is good. Their licensing model needs work, though. The licensing model doesn't fit the way MSPs do business."
"The pricing is very good for 10GbE switches and you get a lot of throughput. It is about 60 percent of the costs of other switches from competitive manufacturers, which is really good."
"For its price, it scales well."
"Insight pricing is okay. It's very competitive. The costs of the hardware and additional services weren't low because Unify is much cheaper, but the costs conformed to the market. When you look at the hardware specs, the price and the warranty, the complete package was much better than any other vendor. If you consider those three main aspects of Netgear Insight and Netgear Insight devices, and you put them next to Ubiquity or Cisco Meraki, or even TP-Link, in our opinion, it's better hardware, it has a better warranty, and for the price you have to pay, it's a pretty good product."
"I would rate the tool's pricing a nine out of ten."
"This is a one-time purchase and there are no licensing fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
27%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

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How do NETGEAR switches compare with Cisco ethernet switches?
NetGear switches have a lot to offer. They have high availability, zero-downtime stacking, L2 and L3 functionality, and are AV-over-IP ready. NetGear switches also have a command line interface and...
Which switches are better - Ubiquiti Unifi or Netgear?
Ubiquiti Unifi offers a great set of features. For starters, it is easy to configure and implement, and also doesn’t require a learning curve because it is easy to use. It is also simple to reconfi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETGEAR Switches?
If I were to rate price, I would give it eight or nine points. It is an expensive product.
 

Also Known As

PowerConnect Switches
NETGEAR Insight Managed Switches, NETGEAR GC Series, NETGEAR M Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amerijet Holdings Inc., CGD Securities, MavenWire, Tulane University
Blaze Networks
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