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Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches vs NVIDIA Mellanox comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.5
Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches offer reliability, durability, and scalability, justifying high initial costs with long-term performance benefits.
Sentiment score
1.0
Users reported time and cost savings from NVIDIA Mellanox, highlighting improved performance, reduced latency, increased efficiency, scalability, and reliability.
Compared to other low-end switches with similar features, these are more robust and offer better scalability, which justifies the higher cost.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.3
Juniper EX Series switches receive mixed reviews on support, praised for expertise but criticized for contact issues in certain regions.
Sentiment score
7.5
Customers desire multilingual NVIDIA Mellanox support, rating it satisfactory to good, while often relying on peer assistance.
I have not faced any hardware issues requiring support due to the stable nature of their products.
I would rate technical support from Juniper as nine out of ten.
Local partners and local distributors cannot open direct tickets, but any level of partner with other OEMs such as Cisco can open a ticket directly, which is a connectivity advantage that Juniper lacks.
I would assess their technical support as good—not the best, but it is good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches offer scalability and adaptability, though some models face configuration complexities and occasional bugs.
Sentiment score
5.8
NVIDIA Mellanox's scalable leaf and spine architecture efficiently supports network growth for organizations across various sectors.
Adding another switch to an existing setup turns them into a single virtual switch.
The EX series supports scalability well, with newer series like EX4100 offering stacking of up to eight switches.
I would rate Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches a seven in terms of scalability as it could be more scalable and requires some improvement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Juniper EX Series Switches are consistently stable, offering robust performance and reliability, outperforming similar Cisco models in user confidence.
Sentiment score
5.8
Users are satisfied with NVIDIA Mellanox for its reliable performance and stability, with improvements noted over time.
They have separate control and forwarding planes, which enhance scalability and stability.
Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches proves to be an equally good switch.
We have had no issues with the bandwidth and traffic for the EX switch.
I would rate it a seven because the old versions were not stable, but it is becoming stable over time.
 

Room For Improvement

Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches face challenges with pricing, usability, stability, integration, security, and require better support and documentation.
NVIDIA Mellanox needs improved user-friendliness, better integration, enhanced GUIs, faster support, and occasional bug fixes.
With other OEMs, customers or partners can directly open tech tickets.
Since everything nowadays is web-based and graphical, it should incorporate more graphical elements.
Juniper can make the EX Series Ethernet Switches better by increasing the maximum supported temperature of the EX 4300, which is currently only 45 degrees, to 65 degrees.
I think it's okay; it's the best solution for now for AI data centers.
 

Setup Cost

Juniper EX Series Switches provide competitive pricing, being 20-33% cheaper, with valued affordability and attractive entry cost.
NVIDIA Mellanox offers competitive pricing, strong performance, and cost-effective licensing, making it a highly-rated, affordable enterprise solution.
It is rated high on the scale, and I would say it is definitely on the high side, confirming a rating of one, which means it is very expensive.
The switches have become more expensive than before.
In terms of pricing, the Juniper EX Series is cost-effective compared to competitors like Cisco.
For its performance, it's cheaper.
 

Valuable Features

Juniper EX Series Switches are renowned for performance, security, seamless integration, automation, scalability, and cost-effective, user-friendly design.
NVIDIA Mellanox excels in performance, flexibility, and integration with AI systems, making it ideal for data centers.
We are using the Juniper MX 104 L3 switches and SRX 1500 firewall since 2019, and we have not faced a single failure.
Juniper EX series switches offer great technology, particularly their Virtual Chassis technology, which is an excellent feature for stacking switches and functions like a single virtual switch.
They feature a separate control and forwarding plane, which enhances performance during heavy traffic and attacks.
The biggest advantage is that the vendor is the only one providing no-drop traffic.
 

Categories and Ranking

Juniper EX Series Ethernet ...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NVIDIA Mellanox
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
20th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
4.7
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches is 2.9%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NVIDIA Mellanox is 2.1%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches2.9%
NVIDIA Mellanox2.1%
Other95.0%
Ethernet Switches
 

Featured Reviews

PRADIPJOSHI - PeerSpot reviewer
Virtual chassis technology enhances connectivity and simplifies management
Juniper EX series switches offer great technology, particularly their Virtual Chassis technology, which is an excellent feature for stacking switches and functions like a single virtual switch. The EX series provides a separation of control, management, and data planes, reducing the attack surface area, ensuring a lesser extent of vulnerability. The PoE budget is commendable, and they manage connectivity effectively.
Nurudeen Suleiman - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation and integration improve operations efficiently
We wanted to utilize the advanced InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions offered by NVIDIA, but the users are not too familiar with the InfiniBand environment, which is why we are using the Linux Cumulus 5.6, which is usually the normal Ethernet. I am familiar with NVIDIA Mellanox, as I have products from NVIDIA on review here on our website. I use enhanced multi-tenancy features. Currently, within the data center, we have mixtures of both Cisco Nexus switches, NVIDIA switches, and Huawei switches, so eventually, we are changing all the switches to NVIDIA. On a scale of 1-10, I rate NVIDIA Mellanox an eight.
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Comparison Review

it_user82779 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Computer Software Company
11%
University
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

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?
We deal mostly with Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches products, as we are partners with Juniper products. We work with Juniper wireless. We deal with all the Juniper products and also Cisco and H...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mellanox Switches?
The pricing is competitive. For its performance, it's cheaper, so I would rate it a four if cheaper is lower.
What needs improvement with Mellanox Switches?
The feature we would want to see in future updates of NVIDIA Mellanox is improved accessibility for normal users, as quite a lot of experience is needed before using Mellanox. None of the Mellanox ...
What is your primary use case for Mellanox Switches?
NVIDIA Mellanox is usually used for numerous purposes, but in our case, we are using it in a data center for high-end servers running 200 gig interfaces, and we are able to link it up with Ansible ...
 

Also Known As

Juniper Ethernet Switches
Mellanox Switches, Mellanox SN2700
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

BlackLotus, Staminus, Community Bank, BAS Group, Cloud Dynamics, Privalia, Fluidata, and Tesla Motors.
CNPC, Korea Consumer Agency, Nutanix, Roxo Systems, StorPool, Atlantic.Net, INFN, StarWind, NYSE Technologies, Creative Consultants, ENKI
Find out what your peers are saying about Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches vs. NVIDIA Mellanox and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.