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MikroTik Cloud Router Switch vs NETGEAR Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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

MikroTik Cloud Router Switch
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Routers (5th)
NETGEAR Switches
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (8th), AV Over IP Switching (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is 2.0%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETGEAR Switches is 7.3%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NETGEAR Switches7.3%
MikroTik Cloud Router Switch2.0%
Other90.7%
Ethernet Switches
 

Featured Reviews

Andriejus Artamonovas - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Has supported deeper configuration through traffic mirroring and advanced VLAN setup
The main reason why MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is usually chosen is its raw performance to price ratio. In comparison to UniFi switches, MikroTik Cloud Router Switch can mirror all ports for traffic inspection for further traffic analysis, which UniFi cannot do. VLANs in MikroTik Cloud Router Switch are always useful. The way MikroTik implements VLAN-aware switching at the bridge level is hidden in the configuration. Making CRS work as a simple VLAN-aware switch requires deeper configuration, which is not intuitive. VLANs support individual interfaces not part of the bridge, allowing for double VLANing. You can create a VLAN interface in the interfaces context and also create a bridge interface, add physical ports, create VLANs for that bridge interface, and assign tagged and untagged ports and VLANs. Load balancing is one of the key components. The feature itself is quite efficient and works reliably on MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. The very basic setup is one of my favorites because they have their protocol where I can connect through the MAC address right on Layer 2, and I don't lose connectivity to the switch if I mess up with bridging or IP addressing.
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

"The wiki page that describes the scripting and other features is very good."
"We value the solution's price, and it can do almost anything you need regarding routing, so it's a well-rounded solution for routing, especially for network routing."
"Familiar RouterOS support, port isolation, flexible VLAN handling (tagging, untagging, rewriting, etc.)."
"The most valuable feature is that it has better throughput than its competitors."
"It's a well-rounded solution for routing."
"It is user-friendly, reliable, and cheap."
"This product is easy to configure."
"I think that Mikrotik is the best solution for SOHO and small businesses because the price is very good and it includes a lot of features."
"It has saved us a lot of time and money and it allows our customers to be more efficient and save money too."
"The user interface is great for non-technical people, and everything works smoothly."
"The Netgear FS108 is a simple, economical, path to high-speed Ethernet connectivity, giving you solid performance and running usability!"
"The tool is very easy to deploy as it is a very basic switch."
"This is a cost-effective solution."
"The most valuable features are routing and access control."
"The remote troubleshooting is pretty easy. You can turn off a port that might have a network loop created, or where there might be a bad NIC card that is creating issues. Being able to turn off that port remotely is fantastic, instead of having to replace the whole switch. Remote management is really easy."
"The ability to manage them is the big valuable feature. The ease of use is great."
 

Cons

"The area for improvement is security. MikroTik is mostly used by medium and small businesses, so the security is not as robust as Cisco."
"Stuff that I'd like to be improved is really just training and documentation because I think the feature set is full. Another improvement I'd suggest is that their new, bigger releases should be a bit more stable."
"Technical support needs to be faster and more knowledgeable."
"The bulk efficiencies and the control of traffic could be a bit better."
"The initial setup is complex."
"In medium to large sectors, there's a necessity for managing aspects like proxy firewalls."
"The solution does not yet offer a SaaS version."
"The packet filtering, user log data, and user access log could all be improved."
"The tool's price could be better."
"When the power does go out, or if we do a soft shutdown, some of the transceivers or the monitor don't recognize when it turns back on, so I have to physically unplug it and plug it back in and then it works. We're working with NETGEAR's engineers to figure out why that's happening."
"This solution doesn't have a CLI interface."
"The only true con for NETGEAR is they are known more for residential applications, wireless routers, wireless pieces, etc. They don't have the reputation of a Cisco or Extreme on the enterprise side."
"I'd like to see a little bit of slowdown on the firmware updates. They've been doing a lot of them. I don't know if that's just because it's such a new product line, but the firmware updates have been a little annoying because they've been coming once a week. For a switch, that's a little extreme."
"An area for improvement would be creating a wizard that can do a lot of common stuff."
"I would like an email notification in case of errors or failures. If it was possible for the switch to email out an error log or notification note, especially in cases where we have the switches offsite (on the other side of town), then if something was to go wrong, it would be great to know about it before our client goes to use it for a big event, and it doesn't work. While I know that it does do SNMP, which is sort of standard, in the AV world, that is not always an option for us. We are usually running our own little network box and don't always have access to an SNMP server. We may just have simple Internet access or something similar."
"The M4250 switches needs more SFP models."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"MikroTik is really cheap compared to the competitors."
"The licensing for MikroTik is great. It's easy to enter, especially for small businesses. Their model is great."
"The price is competitive."
"This product has a one-time cost and there is no licensing fee."
"I consider it to be a cost-effective solution."
"In Pakistan, if you buy this cloud router, it's approximately $700 for the device."
"They came with the licensing when we purchased them."
"The price of the solution is fair and there is a one-time license purchase only."
"The product is priced economically."
"It's a great price-to-performance solution. I think it's singularly the best price-per-performance we can find, if not just straight performance to begin with... The cost of hardware and additional services is lower, absolutely. I wouldn't say "low," but we found it to be lower than other options, and that helps us resell this back to customers who are looking at other things like a Cisco Meraki..."
"The price to performance of this solution is very good. When it comes to pricing, as far as I'm concerned, they're very comparable with Ubiquity. NETGEAR has pricing that is as good as it gets. That's why I use them."
"The pricing for what you get with the Insight product line is very fair and the value is there, including the annual licensing fees for the Insight Pro for each device... the Insight Pro level, which is their highest level, where you get a lot of features with the Insight, is a bargain. You get a lot of good features for what you're paying there annually."
"Licensing is always a hassle and a pain point."
"We find the cost of NETGEAR hardware and additional services to be below average compared to the top tier. There are still cheaper products out there, but they lack in functionality."
"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."
"The pricing is great. The cost of the hardware is low... There are a few solutions that have a lower cost, but NETGEAR is very value-oriented."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
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 Business19
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with MikroTik Cloud Router Switch?
It can be difficult to identify key functions for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. I experience functionality limitations, particularly when trying to find specific features. It would be beneficial to...
What is your primary use case for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch?
I mostly work with network equipment now, focusing mainly on routers. I work with FortiGates and MikroTik routers. When referring to FortiGate routers, I mean the firewalls, but not the enterprise-...
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

MikroTik CRS Series
NETGEAR Insight Managed Switches, NETGEAR GC Series, NETGEAR M Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Blaze Networks
Find out what your peers are saying about MikroTik Cloud Router Switch vs. NETGEAR Switches and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,563 professionals have used our research since 2012.